• Flax@feddit.uk
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    4 days ago

    I think the main issue was the “don’t trust the mainstream media” and “fake news” BS. It was genius if you think about it. Then people will go to him for their info.

    I also understand though that the USA has less unbiased reporting, unlike the UK where unbiased is generally the standard for TV reporting, especially for the BBC.

    Our newspapers, however…

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Yes, I really think a major reason that the US is failing is the lack of an equivalent to Australia’s ABC, Britain’s BBC, Canada’s CBC, all the way to (I wish this were true) New Zealand’s ZBC.

      Those public broadcasters anchor the news reporting space. Many people think they’re biased, and it’s probably true that they aren’t 100% neutral, and definitely have an institutional bias. But, the kinds of people who work for those public broadcasters really believe in their mission to tell the truth. Normal news consumers still end up in filter bubbles, but it’s really easy to pop out of those filter bubbles for a second and check out the public broadcaster. In the US, even the supposedly centrist for-profit broadcasters are heavily biased because they need to make money. The bias isn’t necessarily left or right, but it’s in favor of whatever’s sensationalist and will keep people glued to their TVs.

      • Flax@feddit.uk
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        4 days ago

        Interestingly enough, you find a lot of people claiming the BBC is biased, but those people cannot agree on who they’re biased towards 😆 so they must be doing something right.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          Yeah, I think the truth is that they have an institutional bias. Like, they believe in the value of government, so when people are attacking the government they tend to portray that in a negative light. It doesn’t matter if the government being attacked is liberal or conservative.