Asymmetrical Polarization

[Robert Mahnke]

That's nonsense. There's a lot of good journalism out there.

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 12:34 PM, Atticus Pinecone <
atticuspinecone at gmail.com> wrote:

> America & American journalism have relatively short & interwoven
> histories... What are the positive journalism examples? We can all name
> absolutely catastrophic negative ones...
>
> Almost seems like the way NYC & Boston are built on landfill... America is
> built on lies & slander...
>
>
> On Dec 14, 2017, at 3:17 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The centrism of Bothsiderism ultimately comes not from an interest in
> truth, or any other ideology, but in a desire to not offend people so as to
> keep selling ads. If right-wingers move right, so does the center. It's
> relative positioning. But a lot of journalists see it as a profound
> philosophical commitment essential to journalism.
>
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 11:53 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I mostly agree with you take.  But the "centrist voices" of Bothsiderism
>> has nothing to do with actual centrism (like truthiness has no relation to
>> truth).  There are such things as facts.  As the Right becomes ever more
>> extreme, the "center" is no longer near any rational center (asymmetry).
>> Norms of discourse and behavior are obliterated by the Right as they
>> embrace all manner of evil.  This has been our ever-increasing political
>> reality for decades.  Trump has pushed it so far that it can no longer be
>> ignored, and that's a good thing, I think...
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>>
>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.
>> www.avg.com
>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
>> <#m_-1114437254035411639_m_7839452131827110361_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 1:28 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Bothsiderism is a result of previous media environments where the fixed
>>> costs of running a local newspaper or TV station are high and there are
>>> network effects (e.g., people want to advertise where the viewers are), so
>>> for business reasons it made sense for outlets to adopt centrist voices
>>> that don't offend anyone, letting them sell more advertisements. You can
>>> call this whoredom if you want, but it's the function of letting the market
>>> function. It makes less sense now because the internet makes it so much
>>> cheaper to publish, and that has led to a proliferation of outlets
>>> (although not as much in local news, which still has substantial fixed
>>> costs of newsgathering that deters entry). FOX News has made a lot of money
>>> by focusing on right-wing viewers, and leaving everyone else to other
>>> outlets. Google and Facebook have made far more money by giving people a
>>> way to find what they want to hear, unfortunately in news as well as a lot
>>> of other things. If only someone could figure out a way to make money in
>>> the pursuit of truth.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 5:26 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/yes-pol
>>>> arization-is-asymmetric-and-conservatives-are-worse/373044/
>>>>
>>>> 1.  Bothsiderism is a result of media whoredom.  Ratings over truth
>>>> (and morality).
>>>>
>>>> 2.  Republicans are the real problem, on many levels.  Trump has pushed
>>>> this reality to the forefront of everyone's consciousness, except for the
>>>> Walking Dead.  We should thank him for that.
>>>>
>>>> David Morris
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20171214/880c4bb8/attachment.html>