• TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
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    8 months ago

    I think the issue here is that you no longer can have “balanced” political discussion when one side cannot help but regurgitate conspiracy theories, disinformation, and just 100% proven false statements in bad faith. The minute you platform these people any meaningful “debate” evaporates and you’re left with discussion not based on anything in reality. And trying to only works to drag the Overton Window to the right.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      This is one of the reasons I stopped listening to NPR in the first place. During the Trump administration they kept letting Trump’s mouthpieces say whatever they wanted for like 15 min, and then give like 3 min to the opposition to explain how everything they said was a bold face lie. There just wasn’t any push back from the actual journalist.

      That and they canceled Ask Me Another, which is pretty much the only thing I would ever give them money for.

      • WamGams@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        The standard NPR segment is 4 minutes. A feature is 8 minutes and maybe once a day they go over.

        It may have felt like that, but I assure you that it wasn’t that bad.

      • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        IDK, I feel a lot of their programming, especially recently, has been pretty stern that there’s conspiracy theories with no basis in reality. I recall them having pushed back on lies by conservative interviewees as well.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Oh hell yes I can’t name names at the moment. But I remember seeing a number of different clips of American right wingers going on BBC proper to be interviewed by some right-wing lunatic in the uk. Thinking that it’s going to be some sort of Cakewalk and they’re just there to look good. And then just get totally shredded. It makes me a little sick inside to cheer for the British lunatic. But you got to take small wins where you can get them. I wish all media had a fraction of the spine they do over there. It’s still far from perfect. But it’s so much better.

          • MDKAOD@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            The challenge is that in this current Trumpworld political climate is that news organizations that push back or argue in the slightest would never get additional interviews. Similar to how game publishers stop sending review copies to publications who haven’t reviewed their previous works in a positive light.

            We appear to be in an era of “no news except positive news or else” rather than “all press is good press”

            • mriguy@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              But what is the value of having those interviews? Platforming somebody who is just going to tell flat out lies, and not calling them out, doesn’t inform the viewer of anything other than that watching that news outlet is a waste of time.

              • MDKAOD@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                I agree. It’s the current state of our society. Nobody likes to be challenged or have their feels hurt, which leads to avoidance of the challenge. It’s a catch-22. There’s little value in a non challenging interview. There’s no value in an interview that doesn’t occur at all.

          • Optional@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            . . . those lies went essentially unchecked, and they’d hand the interview off to a Democrat who was baited with a leading question about “what you think about the claim that Democrats are running a child prostitution ring in the basement of a pizza restaurant”, or something else equally ludicrous.

            I wish that was a recent tendency, but they were doing that in the late eighties. Not . . with the pizzagate-level stuff, the right hadn’t melted to that level of grotesque obscenity yet. But they’d use a GOP talking point to frame the story. Still do, actually, but for a long time they were essentially the only slightly liberal media around.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          That could be true nowadays, I haven’t listened to them since the Trump administration. I don’t really think it makes up for it though. If the journalist only has the spine to stand up to the GOP with a Dem in the Whitehouse, then I don’t think they should be on air.

          • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            are you seriously implying that NPR is scared of which party is in the white house? I feel that a rather extreme accusation that warrants a lot of proof. I would more easily believe that things you saw were more of a result in a change in American politics, that the media was slow to react to. This is the first president and party that is believing and spouting conspiracy theories and outright lies, with a huge percent of their voters believing them. Our government has been struggling dealing with this unexpected twist, so it only makes sense for journalists, or anybody involved in politics, to now know how to deal with this new setting and take time to adjust their plan of action.

            • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              are you seriously implying that NPR is scared of which party is in the white house?

              I think media personalities have to follow the guidance of editors and producers, and I think those editors and producers can be influenced by things like donors and funding. I’m not sure if I would characterize that as being scared.

              I feel that a rather extreme accusation that warrants a lot of proof.

              Lol, I’m not making a court case. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, mine is that npr is mainly patronized by center right WASP.

              I would more easily believe that things you saw were more of a result in a change in American politics, that the media was slow to react to. This is the first president and party that is believing and spouting conspiracy theories and outright lies, with a huge percent of their voters believing them.

              Not old enough to remember the Bush years?

              Our government has been struggling dealing with this unexpected twist, so it only makes sense for journalists, or anybody involved in politics, to now know how to deal with this new setting and take time to adjust their plan of action

              It may feel that way, but I’ve been through this rigamarole more than once. Similar excuses were made for the media complicity to the invasion of iraq…we just haven’t ever had the wool pulled over our eyes like this before! Selectively forgetting the bay of pigs and the Gulf of tonkin.

      • mriguy@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        They’ve been doing that at least since the GWB years, which is why I stopped listening to them then.