• linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    When I moved out of my parents house and stopped watching fox news.

    I figured out pretty quickly that there were really big differences between Fox,NBC and CNN, at that point I saw CNN as being approximately truthful.

    A couple years later one of the guys that worked with had CNN lies bumper stickers. I thought BS, but realized I really should see what it was about.

    I looked into that. And found that he wasn’t wrong but it was way more complicated than that.

    I realized that even the news channels with the most journalistic integrity still have numbers to make. If I’m not riled up they consider me under-consuming. And there were still agendas here and there.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
      1·
      3 months ago

      In the Netherlands we had (and as far as I know, still have) state sponsored news and they are by law obliged to be truthful and neutral. I always found it to be a very trustworthy source, and I think this is something that other countries should do too. It had no numbers to make, they got paid no matter what, so they simply made the news, they were journalists. 10/10 would recommend

      • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        We had fairness in reporting laws until Reagan came through and nixed it.

        That type of thing makes it better, but the bias still comes through in reporting choices. The right wing side always reports every piece of doom and gloom in the cities so they can make the case that the entire left-wing side is backing lawlessness.

        Hell even if you take journalism out of it, every other neighborhood on social media will report that there are bands of roving kids running around thieving and fighting. Come to find out it’s a bunch of high schoolers getting together in summer at a carnival. I mean, we even have gang activity here and there but they hardly report on it.

        • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
          2·
          3 months ago

          Put those laws back, then. Right now the most accurate news source I can find is the daily show, which is a Comedy show. Jon is hilarious for sure, but how the hell is it that a comedy show does better?

          Require news shows to be factual or they can’t call themselves news.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 months ago

    It’s not a lie. It’s a point of view. It’s a declaration of intent. Being #1 isn’t a privilege, it’s a responsibility, and a choice.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
      0·
      3 months ago

      Sorry, bullshit.

      It’s always “we’re the beat, we’re the best at X” whereas the reality is that you have rampant poverty, institutionalized racism (hello US police forces!), shit and unaffordable healthcare with (apparently) doctors who put their religion over their Hippocratic oath, unaffordable education which doesn’t get you a good job anymore anyways, you don’t work to live, you live to work, you have almost no vacation days whatsoever, you have no free days agter when your baby is born,you can’t do anything anymore without a car, you have no freedoms, but they convinced you that parading around military style weapons is freedom somehow. You teach little children at school that sex is wrong, but it’s good to knoe what to do when the next mass murderer visits your school again. Your police is racist, uneducated, inept, and corrupt… I could go on, but you get the idea.

      Sorry, America sucks, to paraphrase someone else in this thread: it’s a third world country wearing the mask of a first world country.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        02·
        3 months ago

        Right. Being #1 means being the best. “We are the best at X” is an equivalent statement to “We’re #1”.

        Not disputing that.

        What I’m saying is that both of those statements can be, and are, statements of intent.

        You really think a pizza place claiming “The best pizza in NYC!” thinks they’re stating an objective fact? No, they’re stating their commitment to acting as if that’s their role. It’s a commitment to excellence and striving.

        • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
          1·
          3 months ago

          Yeaaahhh, about that.

          First of all that’s not how language works. If you say A but then when called out on it say “well actually I meant b to be like a” then you’re just lying

          Then, that intent kind of becomes questionable too when your pizza parlor is rat infested and your pizzas are covered in mold. The US has great things, like all countries, but all takeb together I consider it a third world nation that ban barely get by.

  • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
    0·
    3 months ago

    Not American, but my views of America being “the good guy” completely crumbled when I read Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent.
    It made me put into perspective the amount of propaganda we’re being fed by mass media, just by reporting with carefully chosen words. It’s obviously not limited to America, because the same patterns are being used all around the world to justify imperialism, nationalism and ruthless capitalism.
    It also helped me realise how fucked up some of the things my government did (and is still doing to be fair) and we just gobble it up, because it’s insanely hard to get out of the bubbles we’ve created for ourselves.

  • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
    01·
    3 months ago

    When I gave the books Manufacturing Consent and Consequences of Capitalism a fair chance, and learned about the brutal reality of our foreign policy that goes completely ignored in our history books

    Also finding the channel Knowing Better on YouTube and learning much more about the history of Slavery and Native Americans