Sinclair's Soldiers in Trump's War on Media

What Hacker News said

Strong rec EGreg · 2020-12 · on “We can have democracy or we can have Facebook”

It’s more than facebook. It’s CAPITALISM. People have to always preface any criticism of it by saying “there is nothing at all wrong with capitalism, but...” But no, the actual ECONOMIC SYSTEM and the incentives and constraints it exerts on institutions and organizations is responsible for what is happening. It selects for the current types of organizations and outcomes by its very nature. You see, both our news and our social networks are driven by a profit motive and face market competition . Thus they are forced to adapt to changing circumstancss in certain ways: Act 1. Journalism was disrupted by the Internet, and survived by adopting the FOX News model of locking in an audience and bein

Recommends Minor49er · 2022-03 · on “DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation””

It doesn't need to be a secret. If you have a megaphone that everyone hears all the time, you will simply have more influence than people who whisper quietly. 6 companies dominate the media [1] which together make up at least 90% of all media [2]. Note that this isn't limited to just news. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] Also, you might find this video either amusing or alarming [this video]

Recommends justin66 · 2023-02 · on “Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them”

> In one small consolation, in both cases Americans had more trust in local news. This trust in "local" news is often misplaced given how many local news outlets - television stations or newspapers - have been subsumed by larger interests. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the Deadspin video of dozens of local news anchors reading the same editorial content handed down by Sinclair Broadcast Group is striking: [this video] [LINK] There is an awful lot of really, really good stuff put out by local newspapers and TV stations but people ought to be thoughtful about their use of any media.

Cites indrora · 2021-11 · on “Students pay price for UM diversity goals (2019)”

Conjecture, but backed up by the experiences I had with Journalism classes in college, part of my major: Such pieces are typically written by a high-ranking individual within the publication, but they wish to deflect the backlash that can come from writing such a piece, so the "staff" name is used to shield the writer from criticism. It's mostly Must-Run content: Content that a funding source or otherwise powerful position within the organization has deemed must be printed. Must-Run content is commonly used to burn or otherwise redirect vitriol, or more often establish a common message among many publications. Such things are also used to push local news outlets to [tow a line]( [this video] ) by

Cites KronisLV · 2021-12 · on “For Third Year, Committee to Protect Journalists Excludes Assange”

I think that most systems are flawed and, given enough time, will be corrupted and ruined. That has happened with (to my knowledge) every communist nation out there, from USSR to Cuba. Similarly, that has already happened with the capitalist US: corporate interests over those of people, and the interests of the rich over everyone else; at times, it's something like the plot right out of a Deus Ex game: [this video] . Honestly, the same is also probably happening with the more socialist leaning EU, at least based on how many stories about corruption and bribes one hears on the news in my country, not even thinking about the same on a grander scale. I don't really have any solutions to offer or ide

Cites tomatowurst · 2022-04 · on “Six companies control 90% of what you read, watch, and hear”

Reminds me of this viral video of different US media outlets saying the exact same thing. It made me think whether the claim that US intelligence agencies placing an insider was true or not. [this video]

Cites specialist · 2023-03 · on “Chinese disinformation targeting U.S. features fake people on fake news programs”

Max Headroom goes mainstream. This tech will save the Murdochs, Sinclairs, every purveyor of infotainment, so much money . No more salaries for anchors. No more huge payouts to settle (sexual) harassment and descrimination lawsuits. Agitprop like this will be automated, turnkey, ubiquitous: Sinclair's Local News Anchors all Read Same Script [this video] So much potential. These are exciting times for trolls and grifters.

Cites colinwilyb · 2023-03 · on “Chinese disinformation targeting U.S. features fake people on fake news programs”

How much computing power is required to duplicate current news anchors and feed them a script? The format is already perfected. [this video] [Sinclair Broadcast controversy]