12-17-2021, 04:21 PM
(12-17-2021, 03:23 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: While I agree with you in theory, let's keep in mind that people don't want the facts. The majority of "news" consumed in this country is profit driven. It is corporate owned and filled with advertisements. They are not selling the news, they are selling the viewers/readers just as social media sites are doing. They are selling us to advertisers. In order to do that, they need consumers of their media. Just look at ratings of Fox, CNN, MSNBC compared to C-Span or PBS NewsHour. Compare listenership of NPR news to one of the corporate ones out there (I don't even know who they are, anymore) or compared to the podcasts the claim to be news. Compare readership of NY Post, WSJ, NY Times, Washington Post, etc., online or print, to something like the websites of the wire agencies like AP and Reuters.
The non-corporate examples aren't even strictly fact-based, there is some flavor in their product, but even with that they don't draw the same audience because that is not what people actually want. If the people don't want it then these companies producing their news for profits aren't going to make any changes.
I don't like a government run media because the media should be adversarial to the state. But profit driven media will always be highly editorialized because of the need to sell eyes to their advertisers.
I get that, but I don't know if I agree with your conclusion. I also think comparing print media to television/internet media isn't a great comparison as fewer and fewer people rely on print media. I think if a media outlet came out that just reported straight facts without bias, made a clear separation between op-ed and the hard news, and had both a right and left leaning pundit they would have a much bigger audience than you believe.
I liken it to the current trend towards fast food that only does one thing. For a very long time the trend was for fast food locations to have more and more variety. Now the really popular franchises are your Raising Canes, In 'n Out, Chick Fil-A, etc. that focus one doing one thing well. I honestly believe that many people are starved for real news and it would do much better than you think.
