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America’s Right-Wing Propaganda Problem Might Be Terminal
(www.damemagazine.com)
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this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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politics
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I've often wondered what can be done about this. It's accepted that good journalism is expensive- crews need to document, reporters need to travel, interview and investigate, writers have to write and editors need to edit. Nobody works this hard for free.
But now we're also collectively showing we don't want to pay for subscriptions, we don't want to see ads, and we definitely want the fourth column to remain independent from government funding. Effectively there are no revenue streams available that work for these organizations.
Meanwhile AI slop, propagandists and trolls are more than happy to keep publishing because they don't have the overhead of investment in truth. It seems like the ultimate lose situation and truthful, fact based reporting will eventually die completely.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/01/do-countries-with-better-funded-public-media-also-have-healthier-democracies-of-course-they-do/
“among rich countries, the United States is a biiiiiiiiig outlier [in per capita spending on public broadcasters]”
“Germany spends $142.42 per person on its public media. Norway spends $110.73, Finland $101.29, Denmark $93.16. Leave Scandinavia for Western Europe and you see the U.K. at $81.30, France at $75.89, and Spain at $58.25. Heading a bit east? The Czech Republic’s at $60.08, Estonia $55.70, and Lithuania $32.71.
Only trust the Anglosphere? Try Australia $35.78, New Zealand $26.86, or Canada $26.51. How about Asia? Japan spends $53.15, South Korea $14.93. Africa? Botswana’s at $18.38, Cabo Verde $15.22.
And then there’s the United States — which spends $3.16, per person, per year, on public broadcasting.”
Fund PBS and NPR.
Damn, I donate $5/m for PBS Passport but had no idea the US general funding was that relatively low. Appreciate the perspective.
Canada could do better, and is tumbling down the right-wing shit hole as we speak.
Man, thanks for these numbers. It just confirms my stance that America is not a country. It's a for-profit company that hates its employees.
I think public funding with independent editorial control is the way to go. It's not perfect by any means but it's the best we have.
Funding should be tied to ethical journalism practices. Editorial content clearly separated from news, sourced facts, clear conflict of interest statements, equal time for opposing views, and corrections should be prompt and obvious.
Regarding this you have to be careful to avoid false balance. Someone posted this image recently:
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/4f42cdbc-ca5e-4327-9237-3d6278e43dc3.webp
Sometimes one side is not equal to another.
Yeah, it's not a clear cut policy. It could also force a news org to dig up a crazies that support racial segregation or ethnic cleansing. I would only expect "equal time" to apply to more op-ed type pieces, so someone like Tucker Carlson wouldn't get an entire hour to himself. Those programs could still exist just not as a community-funded venture.
I have no journalism background so I'm just spitballing.
I’ve wondered the same thing. I never minded ads on news articles as long as they were along the side and out of the way of what I was reading. After they started pushing the ads that spring up in the middle of the text I was reading and click-jacked a few times, I switched over to an ad blocker and never looked back. Good journalism needs to be monetized in some way, but I’m not adding another monthly subscription for a single news source and I’m not reading articles from a source that prioritizes the ads over their content the way they have been. I don’t know how we go back from here.
No. It isn't.
Even on The Left we are full of people who shit on news outlets endlessly and "help" by pulling stuff out of ad walls or to reproduce everywhere.
And the moment they see something they don't want to? Personal attacks, accusations that journalists are shills, etc. Let alone if a news outlet decides they don't want to risk persecution when they know nobody has their backs.
This battle is more or less lost. But the only hope is to push back against all the "all of this is just clickbait" stupidity and discourage people from pulling those articles out of the ad and pay walls.