What do you think about the media in USA?

Definitely too much polotics, ever since Trump came around. I favor the left, but I noticed Fox News has much better variety in the things they cover and talk about than the other networks, which have been Trump nearly 24/7. Have any thoughts about the media?

Ridiculous and entertaining.

The domestic political coverage is fun to read but the foreign affairs stuff doesn't export well.

I think it's biased, but I much prefer corporate, personal, and obvious bias than state-owned propaganda bias.

In other words, I'd rather listen to Fox News or MSNBC than some state-owned Chinese, Russian, Israeli, and so forth network.

With that said, I wish the news was a bit more objective, less sensationalized, and frankly a bit more boring. I don't care what some talking head thinks, just give me who/what/where/when/why and move on to the next bit.

Yeah there is a lot more to the world than politics, it'd be nice to hear about it.

And shootings. Tired of hearing about shootings you'd think millions of people are shot every day...

If I miss cable for one reason, it's for the local news. I do enjoy my local news affiliates.

@mrbojangles25:

The media may as well be state owned here in USA the way it's turned to all polotics. Seriously, they don't cover anything else but barely these days.

What's being covered is important. But if it makes you feel better Fox News is pretty much state run TV.

@LJS9502_basic:

The world does not revolve around Trump. It's upsetting to me that all I hear about on the news is that idiot. It's seriously dumbing us all down.

He is the leader of the most powerful and richest country on earth. Do you expect the news to ignore him or...?

@leicam6:

It's simply uncalled for to give him or polotics in general 24/7 news coverage. It's totally rediculous to do that. It's not for informing anybody. It's because people like a reality show and it's good for ratings. It's being covered as if literally nothing else exists in the world right now. That's my opinion and I don't see how I'm wrong.

Yeah I get that feeling, but if that were the case you wouldn't have the right (who is in control at the moment) complaining about the media so often. Then again they complain about everything, so...

In truth it's more corporate interests (which own the politicians) at play. That's my tinfoil hat belief, at least.

In the end it makes little difference because cable news, corporations, and politics is all intertwined around money. The left-leaning places get viewers by telling us how terrible Trump is, and the right-leaning places get viewers by telling us how great he is. Companies pay networks for ad time, and companies pay politicians.

If it were up to me there'd be no money in politics, and news networks would have tighter ethical regulations.

Yup, ratings. The fact that Trump saying something dumb/crazy/unbelievable is still selling news boggles my mind.

@mrbojangles25:

Yeah apparantly 24/7 "The Apprentice" sells better than news that informs us more. The only parallel is when OJ Simpson trial was all the rage.

Dumbing us all down?

The population is already significantly dumbed down to even get to the point of electing such an idiot so we must have to endure and be bombarded daily by his embarrassing imbecility.

The media is used as a brainwashing tool.

Everyone is in there own corners. It is pretty powerful what media can do.

I tend to get my news from podcasts. NPR programs such as 1A, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition are good for daily news. The npr politics podcast is good for politics, embedded, planet money, and The Indicator are good for non-political stuff that a lot of daily shows tend to miss. I also listen to the 538 podcast for politics as well. I do a lot of other podcasts as well, but those are the ones I really do for the news. For local news I go to The Evansville Courier and Press because they're good at it, and I like to support the place I work at.

Beyond podcasts though I don't tune into really any tv news stations. It's not that they're all bad or anything, but they require my eyeballs (and my butt in a seat to go with it), and podcasts only require my ears which means I can listen while I work or exercise or doing housework, etc.

Unreliable in some forms, especially right wing media. The far left wing media is too sensational, but less fictitious.

Good sources are NPR, PBS, WSJ (not editorials), NYT, ABC, CBS, Reuters, BBC, and The Guardian.

Entertaining...

@zaryia: lol

Abc and cbs, get

Out of here!

Huh?

It's about as bad as the gossip magazines in my country. In other words it's basically useless. It exists more for entertainment purposes than having much of a practical function. But I don't find it entertaining, I find it upsetting. As with advertisements, I don't like being lied to. Worse than lying is when the media doesn't correct itself even after it's been made clear that it has written a (convenient) lie. That's devastating to its integrity because it showcases the true motivations are or allow them to consciously lie to the people.

I think the USA would be better off without news media than what they have now, because it is fuelling the polarization of Americans and twisting their minds, without much of the benefits. I think it's a dangerous situation. I would call it a crisis. And I would urge the USA to put more money into fact checking and setting up structures for volunteer fact checkers.

This is going to become a priority in all countries, anyway, because of the rise of astroturfing and tech such as the 5 second speech cloning and deep fakes. And I don't think too highly of most of the media I've seen outside the USA, and the USA is not alone in this situation.

A more pressing crisis is the influence of search engines and social media on politics (elections) because it's more advanced, effective, secretive. The only true solution to the interference of Google & Co is transparency. The indexes need to be made public. And (the most popular) social media need to be regarded as a platform which prohibits them from exercising global censorship. I have heard very few 2020 candidates talk about these problems or how they will deal with them. Even though these are some of the most pertinent dangers to the power of the USA people on government. And THAT is extremely concerning:

https://www.politico.com/2020-election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/technology/social-media/

I honestly don't think democracy is going to last in the USA (if not because of this, because of the ever increasing concentration of wealth and the corporate interference with ethics (such as PayPal's) and that should be something on your mind whether you live in the USA or outside of it. Because whether the people in the USA maintain some power or lose it to an elite or corporations (no matter if it's intended or unorganised), it affects us all. We all use these services and we all deal with the USA. Ensure that YOUR country doesn't go down this path. But also keep an eye on the USA.

@zaryia: Left wing is less fictitious...bwahahahahaha.

Yes. Absolutely. Are you joking right now?

More of the conspiracy sources and actual fake news is from the right and/or for the right. This was partially confirmed in the Mueller Report and two studies I will link. Sites like The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Infowars, dozens of climate denial sites, etc as well. For big media, Fox has a lower accuracy/trust rating than all other major networks. Does this excuse some of the silly Liberal equivalents? Of course not. They just aren't as frequent or as extreme.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/06/sharing-fake-news-us-rightwing-study-trump-university-of-oxford

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-two-groups-spread-the-most-fake-news-on-facebook-2019-01-09

But then again I'm talking to the guy who makes the content-free spam posts when I state facts (I have the receipts.) It's like you have an allergic reaction to data. Alternate Reality Fighter.

Fox news is the equivalent of North Korea state run tv. The government gets to decide who is hired and fired.

It is the totally opposite of free press.

Any victims who think fox news represents the truth may as well go live in china. Suckers.

This. While some "liberal" news is bad, it's nowhere near as bad as stuff like Fox, Infowars, or Breitbart.

Clown fest, can't believe how god awful it is. It's basically just tabloid trash on both sides.

The biggest enemy of the US is the media really. It roles on hate.

It always surprises me what a complete lack of empathy some people also have when they talk about other human beings when they get spoon fed by these outlets.

Unless there are going to be some consequences of pushing hate forwards in media and it starts to become more neutral US will stay in a constant war with itself.

Hopelessly addicted to a both sides narrative that is almost always hijacked in favor of conservatives. Almost always gives some sort of blasé coverage to fringe groups and causes on the right (e.g. climate change deniers), very often fails to do the same with even slightly leftward opinions (e.g. coverage of Bolivia post-Morales). I'm not happy about the way they've been demonized under Trump, but they've been laying the groundwork for that sort of thing for a long time. People like Trump have been playing them for a while, and every time someone pointed it out to them they just dismissed them. Now that they're under attack by the same people they gave cover to they're suddenly outraged about a post-truth era, but they ignore the role they played in helping to usher it in.

Obviously, most of the news sources in the US have their particular favorites or agendas. Despite that, I like NPR for the most part. I find their coverage to be interesting and well done. They certainly have a liberal bias, but so what? I find news sources like Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc. to be just garbage in general. It's a shame because they didn't used to be this bad. I guess all news is a business so some of them like to sensationalize things.

I don't pay much attention to the media. What I do watch is on YouTube so I kinda pick and choose what to watch. I don't watch regular TV.

The problem in the US is that the populous is stupid. Most news organizations are just fine. People just get it in their heads that they are right and anything they hear that challenges that thought must be made up fake news.

Media here is trash

The media is one-sided. They never report both sides of a story, in fact, they try to make the news rather than report.

Huge and diverse. There are great sources and there are bad ones.

The Fox News and Trump stuff is beyond out of hand.

Agreed. I really like NPR for example. Yes, they have a liberal spin, but their reporting is still well done. I like some of the NY Times and WaPO, too despite their obvious bias. And BBC america is good when they actually cover the news and not their terrible character stories that they so often do.

Meanwhile, fox news, CNN, and MSNBC are just plain awful. Really disappointed in CNN because they didnt used to be this bad.

Yeah and its the same in every country, I just read the same article from different sources and see whats the same and different to paint a full picture.

I think it's trash

Absolute trash 🗑

i find it hilarious that the people defending CNN, NBC, NPR, NYT, WaPo, etc, think that the only people who find those sources laughably incredible must, they just MUST watch fox news.. if something doesnt fit in their world view, they'll hammer that square peg into a round hole until it does

I think it is shit and probably the reason I have not had cable TV for 17 years and managed not to miss it. At all.

Who's alt are you?