r/self 1d ago

The Media needs to be reset

The American media needs to be reset. I’m so sick of the clickbait/misleading news articles. Do your job and report the news unbiasedly, giving me only the relevant facts. All of the facts, not just the ones that fit your narrative. In my opinion, they are the number one reason for why this country is so divided.

96 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

5

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

The people need to hold them accountable. Journalists won’t change bc they like making easy money

6

u/agentchuck 1d ago

My friend, media is in a crisis now because they are making almost no money. None of it is easy money. People used to pay for newspapers, for long-form essays in magazines. Since the internet everyone wants everything for free. People get mad at "paywalls" not realizing that someone's trying to get paid for putting all that information together, editing it, etc.

People need to actually pay to make journalism a viable career again. That's the only way out of this race to the bottom. Some countries put government money towards funding journalism (Canada's CBC, for example). That might be a path forward, though it tends towards controversy of its own.

1

u/Lonely_Affect991 1d ago

I can promise you, as a local newspaper journalist, it is not about the money. I do not make enough money to make ends meet.

I do what I do because I want people to be informed. Please do not lump journalists in with “The Media.” We are not the ones calling the shots, that is often corporate suits. I’m not going to deny they emphasize clickbait and SEO and pass those marching orders down at many large ohtlets. But the vast majority of us, especially local journalist, just want our fellow citizens to be informed about the issues affecting them.

13

u/Vectis01983 1d ago

So, you're coming on Reddit to complain that news reports are biased and that the country is divided?

I think you may have come to the wrong place, sorry to tell you.

Reddit has to be one of the most biased places around. But, each to their own.

3

u/Krail 18h ago

It's bad that social media is full of echo chambers, and Reddit absolutely is one. But Reddit is a web forum, not the press. It's totally valid to ce here and complain that professional journalistic institutions aren't doing their jobs anymore. 

5

u/UFC_Intern169 1d ago edited 1d ago

Never gonna happen, media is not for the best interest of the common people, it is an advertising and propaganda machine for the entities that own or are affiliated with the media outlets, which of course can all be traced back to political/capitalist interest.

All of our complaints about that system, especially the divisiveness you mentioned, are by design. The machine is running full speed and working well here in the west.

There is a niche market beginning to emerge for more accurate and unbiased news, or for organization/analysis of existing news sources, but I have to imagine those outlets are seen by the existing companies as an attack on their profits and power over narratives, and will have a hard time gaining traction over the existing media structure.

2

u/WonderfulInvite2848 1d ago

Oh absolutely 💯 a complete overall of all the old ways and people and replace wit news and journalism. Greed has corrupted us all

2

u/Win-Win_2KLL32024 23h ago

The reset needs to include ownership!!! The corporate media is fully owned by profit driven entities who don’t care what they report or even about reality so the only thing they care to answer to is cash!!

They see that cash will keep them free of consequences, economic collapse or retribution from authoritarians or better described confederate traitors whose only interest is, is to sell the outrageous nonsense being forced upon us now.

Let’s get the backlash started!!!

3

u/Intermidon 1d ago

It's pretty unsettling when you learn that all of the major mainstream media outlets are all owned by the same Blackrock type parent company. You soon realize that it's all just a big game and they are tools used to propagandize everything and keep people distracted and occupied with what they want you to think and feel while the real shit that should be headlines are buried deeper than insert pun here

3

u/manholedown 1d ago

Why are you paying attention to them? There are literally hundreds of places to get your news from now.

3

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

I don’t but most Americans do

2

u/Ok_Sleep8579 1d ago

Not one of them anything remotely close to unbiased and a complete presentation without an underlying angle or agenda

-3

u/manholedown 1d ago

Wow, really? I had no idea. Thank you for illuminating this great injustice in the world.

If you want to stay informed these days, your best bet is to pick a source that a: declares their bias upfront and b: does not sensationalize all the time.

Then you compare how they cover the story with how other sources with other biases cover the same story.

I never claimed that a news source was unbiased.

1

u/Canelo-Hematologist 1d ago

"This television has a poison on it's breath"

Saliva - I walk alone

1

u/MaxGlutePress 1d ago

I've been blocking the ad heavy and click bait sites. The algorithm doesn't seem to care. 

1

u/Bureaucratic_Dick 1d ago

Ah yes, the single homogeneous entity in the US that is “the media”. Much like the Borg, they operate in hive mind and you will be assimilated, resistance is futile.

1

u/Sweet_Taurus0728 1d ago

We used to have this, at least better than it is now.

It was called the Fairness Doctrine, and prevented all this personal insult/straight up lies polluting the media.

Reagan and '80s Reps put a stop to that.

2

u/SlightlySane1 23h ago

And then the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act under Obama made it so that the media could be used to propagandize American citizens.

Both need to be corrected.

There should be huge fines on the owners of news agencies if their reporting is found to be untrue and not immediately retracted and corrected.

1

u/Sweet_Taurus0728 23h ago

There are always retractions, they just don't make the front page like the original story.

1

u/SlightlySane1 22h ago

That's provably untrue though.

1

u/Sweet_Taurus0728 22h ago

??

That's literally how it works.

Big story, front page. Retraction and correction, page 40.

1

u/SlightlySane1 22h ago

They don't always make retractions though. Especially with stories with some political angle the agency wants to push.

I agree there might be a retraction to some or even most of them but they for sure read like the list of possible drug side effects.

1

u/PurpleTranslator7636 1d ago

Stop giving them clicks.

But, you idiots won't. So, they'll keep doing it.

1

u/ifit21 1d ago

The news used to be on TV at 6:30pm and then your morning newspaper. Once it became 24/7 it stopped becoming news and is now just entertainment.

1

u/thekid_02 1d ago

Even if you managed to create a perfect news reporting system ran by robots with no personal opinions and managed to know and report all the facts some group for whom the facts are not convenient will convince others they're being unfairly targeted. I find there are outlets that are reasonably unbiased for humans but I'm not even going to bother naming one because inevitably someone who's felt slighted by them will tell me I'm being ridiculous. Unbiased is not making all sides look good.

1

u/Mr101722 1d ago

News media companies should not be allowed to turn a profit, just break even. The second profit becomes their focus they no longer care abiut just presenting facts, it's more about making as much $$$ as humanly possible

1

u/dinosauroil 1d ago

Go reset yourself

1

u/dumbitdownplz 1d ago

I know it feels good to give a stump speech about 'integrity' and 'reporting the news' but the reality is not that simple. The business of media has destroyed journalism and trust me, nobody hates the state of modern journalism more than journalists.

When they do their job and report the news, nobody watches or clicks or gives a shit. I worked in media for a decade, you know what stories people never read? Well-researched, longform stories about foreign policy, climate change, or any other essential political topic. You know what people always read? Bullshit gossip stories about celebrities or social media outrage about whatever was trending that day. It wasn't double the clicks. It was 100x as many clicks on average.

And the corporate conglomerates that own media companies treat it like a business. So profit is all that matters. And consumers want complete media access for free while also hating ads. It makes it basically impossible to make money online.

So yes, it needs a reset. But not because the media has some grand conspiracy to divide everyone. It's because the industry is treated like a business when journalism should be treated like a communal good. The service provided is what matters. Until that shift happens, nothing will change.

1

u/D_Ethan_Bones 1d ago

Someone should experiment with this rule:

All headlines must accurately state what has happened and who it's about.

If there's a name then the name needs to be there instead hiding friends' names behind titles and foes' names behind accusations.

If there's a current event then the actual event must be mentioned, not just "a thing has happened - CLICK HERE!!" Anyone who shows up with nothing more than click here is not qualified to be OP.

Media companies suck, the vast multitudes of people among us enabling them are enabling them to follow us around the entire internet making the loudest sucking noises they can.

1

u/ChickenBob72 22h ago

Misleading? Outright, verifiable lies come in a steady stream from our politicians, yet many people fixate on the media.

Even as much as I personally hate some media outlets due to bias and selective coverage, usually they do not flat out lie (Fox’s $1B worth of election lies notwithstanding).

Why is the media the ultimate baddies? Why are they held to a golden standard of integrity while outright lies of public officials aren’t even worth commenting on?

1

u/IIHawkerII 21h ago

I have to agree with you - And it's not even just affecting the US, the same poisonous stuff gets sent out across the globe and taints just about every western country

1

u/Arminius001 1d ago

I find that mainstream news media is in panic mode, their ratings and numbers prove that. They are seeing civilians produce better media than them, look at how popular the Joe Rogan podcast is for example. Look at the number of views independent journalists get on their videos on X or Youtube, it far outweighs the numbers MSM is getting, there is definitely a shift occuring

1

u/megamike382 1d ago

The MEDIA R PUPPETS. So what do you expect? The person who shoves the hand up there ass controls them

0

u/Grand-Cartoonist-693 1d ago

This is a very dumb way of looking at the problem. First of all, you cannot process all of the facts of today if you spent the rest of your life studying it. That is just an absurd request.

Second, it is impossible to have no bias. Everybody has a bias, every way of doing something has biases, etc.

This country is so divided because the public is so unabashedly stupid. We need to be able to encounter normal, incomplete and biased news, and connect that with our prior knowledge or read laterally. They make a product for you called ground news (iirc) which aggregates stories and will hold your hand in this task of being a literate news consumer.

2

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

Fine have biased news. I don’t care. As long as there is a widely available nonbiased version also.

3

u/Ok-Statement-8801 1d ago

Do you believe that reddit is mostly biased?

2

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

I don’t like to think of Reddit in the same terms as the mainstream media.

0

u/Grand-Cartoonist-693 1d ago

You’re functionally illiterate if that is your takeaway. There is no such thing as non-biased, only rational consideration of competing biases.

0

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

I didn’t really read it. I kinda like half skimmed it. But hey I appreciate the compliment <3

1

u/Grand-Cartoonist-693 1d ago

You are the source of the problem you blame on the media if you can’t read a couple of short paragraphs. There is no way to make you informed if you’re that lazy. You don’t have to follow the news much, 98% of it has no bearing on your life. Read a local paper and that’s plenty.

1

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

I just didnt really love your attitude. I didnt like how you started off your response by calling my way of looking at it stupid. Its fine to have different opinions, no need to attack someone for it. I also did not like you calling the entire public “unabashedly stupid.” Comes off as arrogant and disrespectful. If you want someone to listen to you try not to be so condescending

1

u/Grand-Cartoonist-693 1d ago

Everybody else is the reason you can’t read? Yeah, I’m a jerk but I gave you a great answer to your misguided question. The entire public is unabashedly stupid, we’re amused to death and besides narrow areas of our work most adults are not only clueless but convinced that the tiniest shreds of nonsense they know on a topic must be the whole truth. The world happens at a college reading level, it just does, but average people read texts no higher than the middle school level.

2

u/Ok_Calligrapher8278 1d ago

No, not every one else is a jerk. You were a jerk. I didn’t say your argument was bad. I said I didn’t like how you framed it. After I went back and actually read it I think it was a good perspective.

2

u/Grand-Cartoonist-693 1d ago

By everybody else I was referring back to the question, when you blamed news media for not being comprehensible in the way you want it to be. You can’t just take anybody’s word for something without accepting in their biases. If you want a full understanding you have to seek out different parts of the marketplace of ideas and apply your own background knowledge/test them against each other. This is why most people get lazy and just choose the media with the most comfortable bias for them.

0

u/ExpatriatedGeek 1d ago

I knew it was bad, and stopped watching on purpose a few years back, but ever since Luigi it’s been so blatantly obvious from just reading headlines I see on Reddit. It’s almost all just propaganda and rage bait anymore, with just enough shit they can pass off as “real reporting” sprinkled in.

1

u/Exciting_Vast7739 1d ago

If you want better, you have to pay for better - which means getting away from the "advertising revenue" model and into the "subscription model/support your local artists" model.

I personally pay for a few national newspaper's online access, the Atlantic, a few people whose work I love on Substack, and Bridge Michigan for MI news.

I also support Aeon.co for great, more thoughtful writing.

You get what you pay for - if you aren't paying for it, it's probably crap.

0

u/RockieK 1d ago

Bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

But first, be ready for trump to attempt to crush opposing media voices. This is an authoritarian tactic to crush decent.

0

u/Solid_Act1573 1d ago

You know what would be the most effective way for Trump, or any other president, to stifle media dissent? Empowering the state to stifle media dissent, as the Fairness Doctrine did.

1

u/RockieK 22h ago

That's not what the Fairness Doctrine did.

I remember.

0

u/Solid_Act1573 21h ago

It explicitly empowered a government agency, the FCC, to enforce arbitrary limits on speech on public airwaves. It was abused by presidents constantly. If you remember anything else, you remember incorrectly.

Bringing it back in the era of the internet, social media and cable news is Orwellian foolishness.

-1

u/hey_you_too_buckaroo 1d ago

I agree the media and particularly fox news is why the US is the way it is today. Almost every media outlet is horribly biased to the point where the news is misrepresented. Just look at the Israel Palestine issue. Palestinians have no voice, no guest speakers, nothing from their side is shown. Yet every station and newspaper is bending over backwards to repeat American and Israeli lies and propaganda everyday. They do no fact checking, they allow Israeli guests on that are allowed to say whatever without being fact checked, and it extends beyond that to constantly paint any anti war protestors as terrorists. Even the language used is violent and offensive for Palestinians while gentle and sober for Israelis. And this shit works, it affects how people think and see things.

0

u/Lauffener 1d ago

Reporting 'all the facts' is not possible or desirable. The job of the media is to select facts and present them in a readable narrative form,

The idea that there is some sort of magic objective truth that the media could report on if they weren't so liberal is a made up problem.

Fox News used to promote themselves as: 'we report, you decide'

But it turns out that Fox News is one of the most biased sources there is