This has been common practice for fluff stories for a while - and it has slowly crept into the actual “news” along with consolidation of ownership:
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Seems like an appropriate time for a reminder from Masha:
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ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN are conservative networks. They represent corporations who define their interests somewhat differently than those who promote their agenda on FOX and elsewhere, but they all share certain fundamental assumptions that serve to maintain the status quo. They create an illusion of choice by getting their audiences to argue bitterly within a very narrow frame of acceptable opinion, as defined by their sponsors and parent companies.
For example, if FOX and CNN viewers are at each other’s throats over whether we should create jobs through tax breaks or public spending, nobody is questioning whether we should create jobs, or whether we could, instead, distribute our resources in a way that would allow us all to work a bit less. They feature debates over how to raise the GNP rather than discuss how overcomsumption and commercialism are robbing us of our souls, because who would want to advertise next to that?
And they have their audiences bickering over which network is more obviously partisan so that nobody recognizes that it’s all propaganda—even those feel-good stories they put at the end to lull you into a false sense of security.
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That’s hopefully, but like you said, let’s hope we’re not being too optimistic.
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Now that is more comparable to the example in TFA,
I’m a print journalist, so I know how this kind of thing happens with us.
Deadlines, and space in need of filling. So press releases, if it’s not anything too outlandish or important, get a quick once over for fact-checking and verification, and usually we make an effort to get an outside, independent voice or two to add to it. Followed by a bit of a re-write, then it’s filed and we put our limited time and resources into stories that seem more worth the effort.
Chunks of the original press release’s phrasing survive to the published article - so it’s not uncommon to have a bunch of different papers repeating the exact same sentences.
Figure that’s pretty common in TV news too.
I find it more worrying, and professionally offensive, when comments aren’t attributed to anyone and how much skin-in-the-game quoted sources/experts have is hidden - particularly in non-fluff stories - like Sinclair’s doing.
But that’s just a difference of degree not kind.
Ideally, newsrooms would be resourced and supported enough by our parent companies that we wouldn’t have to do this shit even for filler stories. I don’t know any journalist who likes doing it. But, that’s just not the situation we’re in at the moment.
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I always wonder, when I see that, “Democracy dies in darkness” - It could maybe be a timely warning, sure that’s possible, but it’s just as likely to be just a lament.
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Eww. I just realized the station I used to work for in Oregon was purchased by this shitty company. Still, even before that, anchors mostly just took stories straight off the wire… It wasn’t much more sophisticated than a high school AV department.
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FCC fairness doctrine was removed in 1987 by Reagan. And really kicked all of this off. Wikipedia summarizes it well:
The fairness doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The demise of this FCC rule has been considered by some to be a contributing factor for the rising level of party polarization in the United States.
Much of the commercialization of our broadcasting content occurred under Reagan. The explosion of our iconic crap 80’s toy-selling cartoons is one example of when this transformation of our media began.
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You’re not very good at this.
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Momentarily indulging our new posters:
It is true that MSNBC/CNN are heavily biased and serve as propaganda channels for the establishment corporate Democrats.
But they don’t represent “the left”, they represent the less-radical faction of the American plutocracy (who are also the people that fund the corporate Dems). Fox, OTOH, represents the extremist wing of the plutocracy.
The big change here is that high-intensity GOP propaganda is now expanding beyond cable news and into the previously ignored local news stations.
And, of course, like everything else in the Trump administration, they’re doing it in a laughably crude and obvious way. Unfortunately, crude and obvious is not always ineffective.
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No, we really don’t. Yes lots of outlets are talking about the same issue and there is some overlap in language, but there isn’t a mandated script block shared between outlets.
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So a two word phrase first repeated by paid campaign flacks then picked up by pundits is the same to you several dozen stations repeating a minute and a half long script block mandated by their corporate ownership? They seem more than a little different.
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Yah, the “liberals” (phony progressives) are much too sophisticated to do that.
The Trump/Russia story isn’t some scripted media-invented nonsense. It’s the basis of multiple major investigations that have already led to over a dozen indictments, multiple guilty pleas, and a major international diplomatic crisis that could very well lead to the impeachment and removal of a sitting President. It would be ridiculous if every major network WASN’T dedicating major airtime to the topic.
That they would do so is in no way analogous to multiple anchors reading literally the same script penned by their corporate masters as part of a clear partisan propaganda campaign.
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You gotta watch it. Creep factor x1000 when they go all Brady Bunch with the unison talking.
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Actually I think the line from Padme „So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.“ is more apt for current events. We see it in the US or at a more advanced stage in Turkey.
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Subtlety by definition isn’t obvious. Don’t be sorry just realize that your ‘common sense’ is uncommon.
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sounds very familiar, I’m sure I just heard that somewhere.
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Just in case there is any ambiguity on how much thinking Sinclair likes from its viewership, there’s this:
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