God, the US media apparatus is so blantantly propaganistic it’s a wonder that people fall for this shit. I am constantly facepalming everytime I see news from the big networks. And people have the gall to deride other places for propaganda when we are literally the most propagandized population on the planet.
i think you’ve hit on something crucial here. based on your phrasing, it sounds like you’re not exactly glued to big network news. me either.
people who buy into this shit are fairly active consumers of big network news. they catch top of the hour summaries and have their daily summary/analysis i bet.
i had a relative (a basic lib) visit china maybe 10 years ago, and what they remarked on was that, among the general people they saw, nobody was really glued to the news. and, in fact, one of the repeated questions they received from chinese nationals was, “why do anericans watch the news so much? is it that entertaining?”
after that i started noticing how the shittiest takes i heard were coming from people who watch a shitload of “news”. and that their takes seemed extra shitty to me, because i wasn’t primed by consuming talking points from the media machine for 2-3 hours a day.
so when someone would say, Maduro is a terrible dictator" i would be like, “what makes you say that” and all they could muster would be “everyone already says so” with maybe some terribly framed argument that the economy there is fucked up, but having no understanding or familiarity even with the embargo/actual historical context.
and it has been the same with ukraine, israel, SK, the saheel, cuba, whatever.
i don’t even really think im some genius. i just don’t watch the news or regard it as a source of rigorous critical analysis. and that alone is enough to break the spell, it seems.
Have you seen the study on this? They asked people questions with objectively correct answers (such as “What is the capital of Syria?”) and then asked where they got their news from. People who watched local morning talk shows scored highest, followed by people who watched public networks like NPR or the BBC. Next was people who didn’t watch the news at all. In second to last place? Liberal cable news networks like CNN, MSNBC, etc. In dead last was Fox News.
Literally watching nothing made people more informed than people who watched cable news.
for sure, though that study was for basic facts, like you mentioned. current events, results of studies, etc. statements of reality not in dispute among those engaged with the material.
and it’s a bad sign that cable news viewers can’t even get those right, but i guess i want to highlight that this goes beyond that, to critical engagement. people who watch this garbage not only frequently lack the basic facts, but they are completely decoupled from reasoning and contextual comprehension.
which is why we get people who listen to NPR or watch CNN but will blurt out “Maduro is a brutal dictator” or “We are not arming neo-nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine, that’s Russian propaganda” or, a favorite, “Putin is trying to re-establish the USSR”. they tune into the “correct” media, where the basic facts are in line with reality but these simple facts are comingled with analysis of a distinctly liberal/imperialist framing which reaffirms the values and positions of the ruling class.
God, the US media apparatus is so blantantly propaganistic it’s a wonder that people fall for this shit. I am constantly facepalming everytime I see news from the big networks. And people have the gall to deride other places for propaganda when we are literally the most propagandized population on the planet.
i think you’ve hit on something crucial here. based on your phrasing, it sounds like you’re not exactly glued to big network news. me either.
people who buy into this shit are fairly active consumers of big network news. they catch top of the hour summaries and have their daily summary/analysis i bet.
i had a relative (a basic lib) visit china maybe 10 years ago, and what they remarked on was that, among the general people they saw, nobody was really glued to the news. and, in fact, one of the repeated questions they received from chinese nationals was, “why do anericans watch the news so much? is it that entertaining?”
after that i started noticing how the shittiest takes i heard were coming from people who watch a shitload of “news”. and that their takes seemed extra shitty to me, because i wasn’t primed by consuming talking points from the media machine for 2-3 hours a day.
so when someone would say, Maduro is a terrible dictator" i would be like, “what makes you say that” and all they could muster would be “everyone already says so” with maybe some terribly framed argument that the economy there is fucked up, but having no understanding or familiarity even with the embargo/actual historical context.
and it has been the same with ukraine, israel, SK, the saheel, cuba, whatever.
i don’t even really think im some genius. i just don’t watch the news or regard it as a source of rigorous critical analysis. and that alone is enough to break the spell, it seems.
Have you seen the study on this? They asked people questions with objectively correct answers (such as “What is the capital of Syria?”) and then asked where they got their news from. People who watched local morning talk shows scored highest, followed by people who watched public networks like NPR or the BBC. Next was people who didn’t watch the news at all. In second to last place? Liberal cable news networks like CNN, MSNBC, etc. In dead last was Fox News.
Literally watching nothing made people more informed than people who watched cable news.
for sure, though that study was for basic facts, like you mentioned. current events, results of studies, etc. statements of reality not in dispute among those engaged with the material.
and it’s a bad sign that cable news viewers can’t even get those right, but i guess i want to highlight that this goes beyond that, to critical engagement. people who watch this garbage not only frequently lack the basic facts, but they are completely decoupled from reasoning and contextual comprehension.
which is why we get people who listen to NPR or watch CNN but will blurt out “Maduro is a brutal dictator” or “We are not arming neo-nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine, that’s Russian propaganda” or, a favorite, “Putin is trying to re-establish the USSR”. they tune into the “correct” media, where the basic facts are in line with reality but these simple facts are comingled with analysis of a distinctly liberal/imperialist framing which reaffirms the values and positions of the ruling class.
Propaganda is an art form, and US media writers all failed elementary school art class.