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Ryan Skene's avatar

I'm sorry but when someone accepts the media's proclamations as truth, then there is no incentive for the media to be truthful.

It's quite obvious. Unless attempts at independent fact checking are made, the reader will be manipulated for the media controllers gain.

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Phisto Sobanii's avatar

Exactly. Posts like Dave's are just painful to read.

There's how they say things work and then there is how things actually work.

The "benevolent vetter" has no interest in these private media outlets. They're likely paid a salary well under what they should be getting. There's certainly no ownership in the scheme.

Again back to the person in the basement: think they have no conscience? Has Dave ever been in a corporate boardroom?

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

I've been in a corp boardroom many times in my career. I was an IT exec and reported to either the CFO, CEO, or the board. These people are, for the most part, the scum of the Earth. I would say a good many of them are actual psychopaths. Just because I say that the "benevolent vetter" is a lessor of evils, doesn't mean I think it's a good option. But it provides a crystal clear path of accountability; unlike the boob in his parent's basement. But it's up to us hold them accountable.

Here's my analogy: It's like electric cars. Energy consumed is energy consumed. Whether that energy comes from fossil fuels being pumped into your gas tank, or fossil fuels being loaded into giant turbines at the power company, it's still energy consumed by fossil fuels. The difference is accountability. Accountability is MUCH more difficult with 100 million tailpipes, and MUCH easier with a thousand smokestacks. But the rub is that people have to hold them accountable. Sans accountability, I think the lessor of evils is a better choice. That way, one day when people realize how foolish they've been, it won't be an Earthshaking process to clean up the mess.

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

Why do you think I'm here? Why are you guys here? I'll bet it's the same reason as me - because Matt is an upfront, honest journalist that cares about the truth, and does a good job getting those truths in writing. What what you say is the ratio of Matt's genre to the liars and propagandists? 1 in 100? 1 in 1000? 1 in 10,000? As far as I'm concerned, it's close enough to 'needle-in-a-haystack' to say that an overwhelming number of the media (mainstream and otherwise) are not to be trusted. So how do you know who to trust? Are you going to fact check every single thing that comes before your eyes? I doubt it. So my position is an old adage: "Believe half of what you see and none of what you read and hear." Should we, hopefully, eventually, choose to hold media accountable, it's too damn easy for the "guy in the basement" to cut and run.

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

And there's the rub. It's up to us to keep the media truthful, mainstream or otherwise, but most don't seem to care about accuracy and truth. They seem to care mostly about being entertained by sensationalism, and/or seeing and reading things that fit their preconceptions.

Maybe one day when people realize how dangerous this "post-truth" environment is, and quit acting like Facebook (and such) is an important part of their lives, my "guy in his parent's basement" could be an important watchdog of sorts. But until then, he's more than likely to be another dirtbag that see's an opportunity to make money from human fear and bias.

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Phisto Sobanii's avatar

If it's up to us, who exactly is that how exactly do they handle it?

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

That's a good point. The answer is - it's difficult. Like anything that's been allowed to fester for way too many years, cleaning it up takes work and time. It also takes a desire by the general public to be informed by facts, instead of titillated by sensationalism. I guess it's kind of like drug addiction - an addict has to find themselves penniless, laying in a gutter, and being pissed on, before they decide that their life sucks and then change it. I think we still need more people to find themselves unhappy with the situation. When that day comes, and it will, a start would be to hold the easiest path of accountability to task. And in my opinion, that's mainstream media - don't buy it. Put your money towards people like Matt, until and unless they prove themselves unworthy. And by unworthy, I DO NOT mean that they said something you don't like. I mean that they misled you in some way for their own gain.

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

My point has gotten a bit circular. This started out with me saying the following: "I think the real problem is the way this all works", and I'm gonna add to that in a new post.

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Phisto Sobanii's avatar

All good. I wanted to respond to your other post last night, but alas the circadian rhythm took me before I could.

We are very much in a similar place. For me, I focus on what I can directly affect. In the context of your previous post, I think it means this:

Promote skepticism. Question everything. The conclusions don't really matter much, just get people I come in contact with in the habit.

Or to put it another way, teach them to fish.

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

Good stuff. Truth is sort of a moving target. There's really only the search for truth, and it's a never-ending search.

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Phisto Sobanii's avatar

If the cosmos expands forever, searching is all there is. ;)

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