"The rise of social media; the proliferation of information online, including news designed to deceive; and a flood of partisan news are leading to a general exhaustion with news itself.... [People are] tuning out. Mr. Trudell, a registered independent, stopped paying attention to national news about a year ago. He found it toxic and mentally taxing, and it started arguments that had no end.... The degree of alienation is new. In the late 1970s, nearly three quarters of Americans trusted newspapers, radio and television. Walter Cronkite read the news every night, and most Americans went to bed with the same set of facts, even if they had different political views.... New academic work is emerging that supports the view that news avoidance is not about left or right. Benjamin J. Toff, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota, conducted in-depth interviews in Iowa this summer and found that those who say they avoid the news tended to be younger, female and poorer — people already stretched between jobs and home, making hours of evaluating news sources 'the last thing they wanted to do with their time,' Professor Toff said. 'They had this sense that they had to be skeptical of everything out there but they didn’t have the time to spend hours to make sense of it,' he said."
From "‘No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News/Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin. Many Americans are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out" (NYT).
This made me think of that NYT article from March 2018, "The Man Who Knew Too Little/The most ignorant man in America knows that Donald Trump is president — but that’s about it. Living a liberal fantasy is complicated." A guy named Erik Hagerman was disturbed by what happened on election day, 2016, so he "developed his own eccentric experiment, one that was part silent protest, part coping mechanism, part extreme self-care plan.... 'It was draconian and complete... It’s not like I wanted to just steer away from Trump or shift the conversation. It was like I was a vampire and any photon of Trump would turn me to dust.'"
Silent protest... coping... extreme self-care plan.... Yeah, lots of us are coming around to that.
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Click bait for people who are not clicking.
As Mark Twain once said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”
Turn on, tune out, drop out
Try this NYT. You have totally and completely blown your credibility with your wildly partisan stories, stories from anonymous sources and printing stuff that was totally wrong.
You only have yourselves to blame.
Turn on CNN any day and you can see the results. CNN is doing the missing jet thing all over again. If CNN and MSNVC couldn't speculate or offer opinions, it would be dead air 24/7.
Real America doesn't trust the media n/k/a Fake News and hates it.
As Warren Buffett said, "It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only minutes to ruin it." I think this quote was from when he was the involuntary CEO of Solomon Brothers.
What Rick T. wrote. (Darn you for beating me to it!)
Political war is exhausting.
But war is necessary as political contests are played for enormous stakes.
And that is because state power has become economically crucial.
When all is within the state, as it is the universal modern version of neofascism, then there is no alternative to fanatical partisanship and a forever war.
The degree of alienation is new
No, not exactly. The Civil War and pre-Civil War era had bitter divisions often in families. Teddy Roosevelt's mother, a belle from Georgia, had deep sentiments for the Confederacy causing social awkwardness and strife in both her and her husband's families.
But of course, we know that history only began in the 1970's or later.
The news is today's soap opera narrative, or right wing reports on what the left's soap opera narrative is today.
Neither is hard news. Think city council meetings. Nobody watches that or has ever watched that.
Buwaya explains: But war is necessary as political contests are played for enormous stakes. And that is because state power has become economically crucial.
Sadly, the only recipe for world peace is a one-world government which could only be held through totalitarian means.
About the only objective thing out there is humor. And none of that is preceived by feminists.
"Silent protest... coping... extreme self-care plan.... Yeah, lots of us are coming around to that."
And f*** the country?
Journalists are achieving their life's ambition: making a difference :)
There's many supposedly powerful forces desire to shape reality to their liking by shaping people's opinions. But they often present competing and contradicting views of reality. Unlike China, where you have one monolithic message being presented and all others are suppressed on pain of death, in America you have myriad of would be information brokers and story tellers. It's virtually impossible to suppress every contradicting piece of information, every alternate verions of reality, despite a great effort.
And there's just enough people that are suitably skepitical of the various versions of reality that are being presented and decide to either mistrust everything or simply tune it all out in favor of things that are at least somewhat in their control.
But just when information is needed most...the proliferation of...news designed to deceive...[is] leading to a general exhaustion with news itself.
The boy who cried wolf had exactly the same complaint.
What I realized was that free news is crap. Pick a good news source and be willing to pay for it. Otherwise, you get clickbait designed to make you angry.
"But just when information is needed most, to many Americans it feels most elusive."
Poor bastards don't know about the Althouse Blog.
I’ve said it before. Leave politics out of it. NBC put fireworks in the gas tank of a Chevrolet pickup because it wouldn’t explode on command. CBS ran a fake story about the AUDI 5000. They all went in on the Atlanta bombing and Duke LaCrosse. And started to on The Jackie Coakley UVA story that was obviously fake. Fake news is not a new thing, it’s just that now there are ways to find out it’s fake.
This story is so phony. I remember getting spoon fed the news in the 60s. There was one point of view in broadcast: sort of late FDR with a dash of Truman. It later morphed into early George Mcgovern with some Wayne Morse on the side. It was OK but you knew you were getting half the facts. You had to read the editorial page of the WSJ to know what well informed people thought on the other side of most questions.
It’s better now.
I haven't trusted MSM since Dan Rather newscast in late 1983 and there's no reason to start watching them now. The lies and near-lies finally got to me.
Recent events prove it to be unchanged. It is still mostly self-serving, mendacious assholes.
mockturtle said...
Sadly, the only recipe for world peace is a one-world government which could only be held through totalitarian means.
*********************
Make a world-wide prison, and call it peace.
It would be Prog Heaven-on-Earth.
The sky is falling
Clint Eastwood's "Richard Jewell" is coming out soon. Fake News exposed all over again.
From the trailer, "The two most powerful forces in America are the federal government and the news media and both are after you."
People probably did "trust" the media through much of the radio and television age because they didn't know any better. Before that, newspapers ruled and they were pretty explicitly partisan. Post-Internet, people can check their work and they hate that.
In this era you need to be widely observant to discern the truth in the news. Last Friday you could learn the truth about how the impeachment inquiry was going by watching the stock market. When it became clear the Democrats had nothing on Trump the Dow ran up to 28,000.
Give me a break. These losers have been spinning "alternative facts" for so long (as say "alternative medicine") they lost the plot long before Trump took office.
And, politically, a lot of people haven't known "up" from "down" since the '80s but hardly notice.
Professor Toff
Now, that's funny. Is he a Brit?
"The sky is falling"
It is.
I'm looking forward to that Eastwood movie. Like Trump, he seems to have decided to spend his last years righting wrongs.
One thing that has changed recently, is that it's harder to lie successfully./
On October 24, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg released an op-ed claiming more than 400 South Carolinians have endorsed his “Douglass Plan for Black America.” It turns out that the three black politicians listed at the top of his press release never endorsed the plan and 40 percent of the endorsement names listed are of white people.
According to The Intercept, Buttigieg sent out a press release with the op-ed, citing three prominent South Carolinians including: Columbia City Councilwoman Tameika Devine, Baptist pastor and state Rep. Ivory Thigpen, and Johnnie Cordero, chair of the South Carolina Black Caucus.
Oh Oh. And he was doing so well, too.
Steve Sailer was rated the most accurate news source/reporter in a "Survey of expert opinion on intelligence" vs NPR, NYT, Economist, WSJ, etc.
Of course "news designed to deceive" = the NYT, among others.
some delicious soup said...The Civil War and pre-Civil War era had bitter divisions often in families. Teddy Roosevelt's mother, a belle from Georgia, had deep sentiments for the Confederacy causing social awkwardness and strife in both her and her husband's families.
General George Thomas (the "Rock of Chickamauga" and "Sledge of Nashville") was from Virginia, but unlike MANY from that state, realized that the Oath he'd taken* was to the Constitution of the United States, NOT to the state of Virginia .
So,
his family turned his picture against the wall, destroyed his letters, and never spoke to him again. (During the economic hard times in the South after the war, Thomas sent some money to his sisters, who angrily refused to accept it, declaring they had no brother.)
oath he'd taken* On receiving that commission I took an oath to sustain the Constitution of the United States, and the Government, and to obey all officers of the Government placed over me. I have faithfully endeavored to keep that oath. I did not regard it so much as an oath, but as a solemn pledge -- George Thomas
Shorter NYT: pleasepleaseplease pay attention to the propaganda. We worked so hard on it. We have the dog eared copies of All the President’s Men to prove how hard we worked on it.
Paying attention to the impeachment inquiries means being a target of propaganda and spin. It isn’t fake news, it is no news spun to look like news.
People are rising up against the aristocracy all over the world. Not just in the US.
'No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News/Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin. Many Americans are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out.
Sounds a lot like what Soviet citizens use to say about the news sources in the Soviet Union, doesn't it?
Gee, I wonder why that might be the case...
"Democracy Dies in Darkness". What is that supposed to mean? Is it a warning or a goal? The recent Darkness includes secret hearings in the basement. I deduce it is the latter.
I don't "avoid the news," exactly, but I don't follow the news. I've found over the years that it's actually not important to stay informed. I have no sway over what happens, I can't effect outcomes, what happens at the national level affects me only around the margins. I'm not a decision-maker, and the people who do make the decisions don't care about my opinion. So news is just a needless source of agita.
The one and only way I can affect outcomes is through my vote, and all I need to vote responsibly is a general overview of the situation, the policies, and the candidates at issue in the election. I do not need intimate familiarity with all the details. Learning more will not help me make better decisions.
The biggest lie going is that this has anything to do with Trump.
Kevin said...
The biggest lie going is that this has anything to do with Trump
I don’t know man, a lot of competition for biggest lie going.
"You furnish the pictures. I'll furnish the war."
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
Keeping up with political news is pointless, except for the entertainment value. There hasn't been a significant election decided by one or two votes in years, so your individual vote has no effect on the outcome. So why pay any attention? What benefit do you get out of it?
The Adventures of Boris Johnson, as told in the Telegraph, make a ripping good yarn. Not being the least bit British, I can read them with a cruel neutrality, to coin a phrase.
How’s that recession narrative going, btw? Under Trump the economic season of disaster is always next season.
This is why Trump floods the zone. He doesn’t rebut narratives like some political campaigns Rapid Response Team.
He just lies and distracts with multiple other narratives. He understands that it’s lies and propaganda on both sides. But the True Believers on each side are fucking nuts, he knows. So just flood the zone and the middle tunes out the noise.
If the economy continues to do well, Trump has a good chance of re-election. He just needs Suburban Soccer Moms to tune out Da Noise. Their own lives are going well with a good economy. Just turn off the news and vote for Trump.
but the media is all about da noiz, whether it's romances to progressives or the orange man bad tale,
This is the inevitable byproduct of a large, powerful central gub’ment. It substantially raises the stakes for getting one‘s grubby paws on the levers of power. While local contests can be pissy, nobody talks about civil war in a race for dog-catcher. By contrast, any position in DC, no matter how minor, is a bloodletting.
Since the lefties are determined to tell the rest of us what to do and how to do it, the battle lines are easily drawn where they can most effectively achieve that result.
It wasn’t always that way when real power was distributed among the states and the people.
- Krumhorn
Silent protest... coping... extreme self-care plan.... Yeah, lots of us are coming around to that.
The interesting thing is not that you're disgusted but that you're uninterested in why the stuff is out there. It's women. They don't think at a very deep level but go right away on feelings, which the news plays to.
That's the interesting thing. sexual brain difference.
They can become disgusted eventually but remain uncurious about the market for it. Other women are the market.
I suggest an education program. Women! You're different! Learn to spot thinking like a woman when you do it! "Whoa, there I go, let's think like a man here."
I threw out the TV in 1971. I don't seem to be the intended market.
What we didn't know in the glory days of the big three networks is that we were being fed an endless stream of liberal tropes dressed up as facts. Did we all trust Cronkite? We shouldn't have.
"Howard said...
The sky is falling”
Now Howard is channeling that little girl from Sweden.
Achilles said...
People are rising up against the aristocracy all over the world. Not just in the US.<
Wretchard calls this the biggest story since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the media are not interested.
The media are missing the biggest story since the fall of the Soviet Union. Something strange is upending the world and it's almost as if they've made up their minds to be the last to know.
it conflicts with their narrative, don't you know:
https://twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1196478654861193217?s=20
Seems like our whistleblower. was a busy boy.
https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1196495155655847937
With 96% of the impeachment coverage on non-FOX networks being negative toward the President, how can you expect to know the truth if you only listen to them? In addition, the truth about the positive condition of the American economy is hardly even covered by these sources, and when it is, they rarely give Trump any credit. Can you imagine the love fest we would be enduring if the current President was a Democrat with the best economy in our lifetimes. We would have a lightworker riding rainbow beams of sunlight on a silver surf board!
isn't it remarkable, well not anymore,
Had the Media Model of the 70's continued, Dan Rather would've retired with honors from CBS in 2015, and Martha Mapes would've won a Pulitzer Prize for proving Bush skipped out of National Guard service.
We only had the facts the MSM gave us back in the early 80's. And it sucked.
Two ways your side can win:
1) mobilize more of the people on your side; or
2) Get people on the other side to stay home.
The liberal media seems to be going for #2.
Nothing wrong with not caring and being ignorant. Just don't vote. Too many independent/moderates only do the first part.
I tuned out of the news about 18 months ago. I used to read Drudge, NYT, The Federalist, RealClearPolitics - all daily! Now I read none of them. I have no idea what the basic facts are regarding the impeachment allegations. I don't want to know. It's all just a ridiculous, vile, ugly, dishonest cacophony and I want no part in it. When I was tuned in I was angry and frustrated and preoccupied. Now I'm not. I'll vote for the candidate most in line with my views, when I have the opportunity, and that's the end of it for me.
Phew.
they'll still generate the noiz, in the crawl under the programming etc.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/11/17/jim-jordan-referee-ohio-state/
" It was like I was a vampire and any photon of Trump would turn me to dust."
Sanity is getting rarer by the minute.
Here's some information you need to know: "Liberals" suck. And not in the good way, either.
https://www.weaselzippers.us/437814-joe-biden-thanks-harry-reid-for-being-the-whip-in-the-democratic-house/
silly rabbit,
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/11/fedex-ceo-challenges-nyt-editor-to-a-public-debate-over-0-tax-article/
Skylark said...
Seems like our whistleblower. was a busy boy.
https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1196495155655847937
--
What?! Zir's identity is unknown!!
"Soros funded Anti-Corruption Action Center."
Ha!
The New York Times -- knowingly hypocritical, or just completely un-self-aware?
" In the late 1970s, nearly three quarters of Americans trusted newspapers, radio and television"
We were badly mistaken to do so.
It sounds trite to say the media has always been biased, but it's true. The MSM, such as it is or has been since the onset of electronic journalism, has always given us less than the full story, sometimes has given us manufactured and untrue stories, and has always had a hard liberal bias. An example is the way Kennedy was covered. A complete head to toe tongue bath at all times. And of course never a mention at the time of Jack's dalliances or of his White House pool parties, nor of the degree to which his health suffered. And this one-sided romantic coverage was equally true of the Roosevelts before the Kennedys. In Roosevelt's day they used newsreels in theaters and magazines such as Life to always bathe the Roosevelts in a warm light, and never mentioning their personal lives, their own outside lovers, nor the degree of FDR's physical disabilities and developing frailties. These were the models they trotted out and refitted for the Obamas, or tried to. Little is new. The biggest thing that's new is we can now see it for what it is if we choose to.
Try this NYT. You have totally and completely blown your credibility with your wildly partisan stories, stories from anonymous sources and printing stuff that was totally wrong.
You only have yourselves to blame.
Turn on CNN any day and you can see the results. CNN is doing the missing jet thing all over again. If CNN and MSNVC couldn't speculate or offer opinions, it would be dead air 24/7.
Yep.
Thia is why when I see constant stories about evil Hong Cong police slaughtering innocent protesting babies, I kinda have to take a minute and think about it.
Or when evil Chinese commies are genociding the sweet innocent muslims sect, I have to take a second and think about it.
I might wonder if Chinese media is constantly pushing stories about evil American police shooting innocent citizens.
Or evil American govt intentionally incarcerating innocent people.
Or brave atifa fighting against the evil capitalistic American govt.
Was so simple when the media could be "trusted". Now, I question everything.
Of course, some of the more better educated might assume that because I do not immediately accept the 24/7/365 protests by "students" that I am pro China. That in itself is a good example of distrusting the lying NYT when it comes to Trump, but automatically believing them about Hong Kong.
Am I the only person here to see the protester throwing gas on a man and setting him on fire? Because the man was arguing with the "student" protesters.
Or the students harrassing old Chinese grandma for cleaning up the street?
They really should try something novel, honest unbiased journalism. But that wouldn’t promote their democrat team.
here are TWO things to believe; on account of because of the fact that they are totally true
In Genius Move, Trump Supports Impeachment, Forcing Democrats To Oppose
Baptist Children's Bible Depicts Eve Wearing Floor-Length Denim Skirt
Passage quotes in the Bible are, of course, from the King James Version, or, as Atterson puts it, "the only version."
Supreme Court Allows Victims Of Heart Disease, Obesity To Sue Utensil Manufacturer
Here is some Journalism from the local newspaper headline on Sunday [I am paraphrasing]:
"Philadelphia city sanitation department fleet, on average, is involved in one traffic accident per day yet the employees are not held accountable".
I did not view that headline as informative nor surprising.
Am I the only person here to see the protester throwing gas on a man and setting him on fire? Because the man was arguing with the "student" protesters.
Or the students harrassing old Chinese grandma for cleaning up the street?
I guess so.
Thing is, China has earned the benefit of no doubt. They are always the bad guy. Maybe in the semifinals against Russia or Iran it would be different, but odds are that anybody protesting them will TEND to be on the side of right and virtue.
China is chaotic. The fact that you saw one or two isolated incidents of questionable behavior, is not significant. It's like a trampling incident on Black Friday.
I guess so.
Thing is, China has earned the benefit of no doubt. They are always the bad guy. Maybe in the semifinals against Russia or Iran it would be different, but odds are that anybody protesting them will TEND to be on the side of right and virtue.
China is chaotic. The fact that you saw one or two isolated incidents of questionable behavior, is not significant. It's like a trampling incident on Black Friday.
Makes sense.
Now, where do all those organs that are removed go? Sounds like tens of thousands or more. Do Chinese get free transplants? Sell harvested organs on the free market? Use them like rhino horn for enhanced performance?
BTW, how many students have been killed so far? Are firebombs ok with you? Never mind, we already know.
JK.
BTW, the protests started to prevent a guy who murdered his girlfriend from being extradited to China. That law was rescinded months ago.
A noble cause..
Bob Boyd said: "But just when information is needed most, to many Americans it feels most elusive."
Poor bastards don't know about the Althouse Blog.
For information, I go to Instapundit. Althouse is where I go to see a liberal feminist try to provoke both sides.
gilbar@4:34, I subscribe to The Babylon Bee and didn't get those two articles today. What's the deal??
Frenchie wrote: " In Roosevelt's day they used newsreels in theaters and magazines such as Life to always bathe the Roosevelts in a warm light, and never mentioning their personal lives, their own outside lovers, nor the degree of FDR's physical disabilities and developing frailties."
Except when it looked like Sinclair Lewis might win the governorship of California, then the media with the help of Hollywood turned on him, doctoring newsreel footage that purported to show streams of homeless marching to California to take advantage of the benefits Lewis promised. They even "interviewed" bums who spoke like they just came off the boat from St. Petersburg, announcing their support for Lewis.*
(I must admit I'm reciting this from memory. Some facts may have shifted in the process, but you get the idea.)
Vic Hanson knows a shit-ton of wisdom and prudence, which is different in important ways from mere information.
https://amgreatness.com/2019/11/17/the-wages-of-trump-fixation/
The funny thing is, it turns out 99% of what's reported as news literally doesn't matter. If you ignore it, your life won't be benighted; you won't actually be less informed; the things that matter—family, friendships, hobbies, neighborhoods, your work, vacations, etc.—won't change one iota.
Remember, "news" is a product they're selling. And too often, not even that: you're the product being sold to advertisers.
It's long past time to follow the old adage: tune in (to reality), turn on (to real life), drop out (of the news media treadmill).
Your mental health will improve instantly.
I think its important to follow the news - but at what distance? This impeachment thing has a pre-ordained outcome and is using the Russia Collusion playbook. Where's the news? Seems like I could just murmur - "Still, it's only hearsay, why are we playing telephone" or "The Ukraine says otherwise" or "Jim Jordan destroyed that" and be fine.
There has been a continual war between a reality that has been narrated 60 years by CIA operators through their owned News Media and the actual reality that we could not see until Q disclosed it beginning in late October, 2017 and continuing since then, accompanied by President's Tweets. It has reached a perfect storm. This final showdown seems incomprehensible to the believers in the News Media's narrative fictions. But it is easily understood by those following the aforesaid insider reports, with a little help from Serial Brain on YouTube.
Like the world changing Battle of Midway, the Military Intelligence code breakers set a trap and disclosed to the Patriots through Admiral Rodgers, Kevin Nunes, and our amazing, never surrender, President.
I like how no one "believing" anything is troubling to them.
Belief is religious.
None of them "knowing" anything bothers me.
Kevin said...
"The biggest lie going is that this has anything to do with Trump."
Covering their own tracks.
Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin.
If it's in the NYT or Post it's spin.
And possibly false.
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