Trust and the news

[colker]

The problem are in the laws, and how much you want liberalism in your society, not about coming from an app.

See how liberalism works: Air bnb rates the acommodation according to the experience. A couple stays in an airbnb apartment and they are well taken care of.. but when it comes the time to rate the place, guy gives a low note "because it should have a swimming pool" and other nonsense. Next the wife of this guy writes the apartment owner and says "I don´t agree w/ him and he does it all the time: rates badly just because he is an a$$hole".
A hotel receives a note of quality according to a board which regulates the system. Take away regulations and you are up to not only the experience i described but the opposite: bad places rated highly.
Uber is a terrible experience most of the time. Drivers have no idea where they are going relying on apps that have you going round and round.
Bike couriers, uber drivers, air bnb... when you work for these companies you are on your own. No regulations, no contract, no obligations from the bosses. Liberalism is just an excuse to rip people off and get rich while doin it. Meanwhile everything turns to sh%t quality wise.

[zachateseverything]

Yes, I think this is a good way of looking at things, especially in regards to TV news. It would be wonderful to be able to see the stats you mention, or find out who is generating the most source content per dollar, or something of that nature. Just one more slice, one more piece of information to lead to the pursuit of factual reporting.

Someone else mentioned podcasts, I love this format for learning about the topics of world import from real experts who love of their field of work. When you have a good host who asks exploratory questions, fascinating conversations can happen. I really like Rogan too. Others include Ezra Klein, Sam Harris, Steve Patterson, Malcolm Gladwell, Freakonomics, and a few more, just to get plenty of different points of view.

The thing with stuff like podcasts is that the host can quickly find themselves out in the weeds, particularly when they're interviewing someone about a topic and don't have enough knowledge themselves to call out their bullshit. Joe Rogan is a good example of this. If he's interviewing a celebrity, another entertainer (particularly a comic), or someone involved in MMA you get a fascinating conversation with good questions about shared experiences. The interviews with Henry Rollins for example were great. But he also gives a lot of bandwidth to cranks and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and Gavin McInnes. He does a lot of "both sides" fence sitting and often doesn't do enough to call out obvious bullshit.

You've got to take the stuff presented on podcasts with a grain of salt.

[mzilliox]

The thing with stuff like podcasts is that the host can quickly find themselves out in the weeds, particularly when they're interviewing someone about a topic and don't have enough knowledge themselves to call out their bullshit. Joe Rogan is a good example of this. If he's interviewing a celebrity, another entertainer (particularly a comic), or someone involved in MMA you get a fascinating conversation with good questions about shared experiences. The interviews with Henry Rollins for example were great. But he also gives a lot of bandwidth to cranks and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and Gavin McInnes. He does a lot of "both sides" fence sitting and often doesn't do enough to call out obvious bullshit.

You've got to take the stuff presented on podcasts with a grain of salt.

You have to take it all with a grain of salt, and of course no one host can keep up with his guests, especially with that kind of range. Its entertainment at the end of the day, and oh do Americans love entertainment, look at the president!
Anything when Alex Jones is talking is to be taken with not just pinches of salt, but your nose plugged. His podcast is much more freeform. Ezra Klein and Sam Harris are my favorites to listen to most often. Ezra Klein is a fantastic interviewer, very well read, quite liberal, even for me, and his topics are almost always interesting. Sam Harris makes you think, no matter what the topic, he will have a reasoned view. This is the kind of person who makes me change my mind at times.

[mzilliox]

What Happens When the News Is Gone? | The New Yorker

Too Tall was just speaking about this

[colker]

The public is too lazy to deal w/ facts. News tell us everyday that life is never going to be easy; or fair. It became the classic "blame the messenger" deal. The public choses to go along w/ anyone who says "i am just like you, an ignorant who will sort things out in a brutal way or in a religious way because it worked in the past." Actually it never did but brutality simplifies life and so does manipulating people´s religious faith.
It´s not the news fault.. it´s the public that does not want the freedom which comes along w/ democracy. They want less diversity, less contrast, less paradoxx.
Any similarity w/ nazi germnay is just coincidence..

[fastupslowdown]

Can I get an AMEN???!!!

Facebook... destroying functional communities and families, one at a time.

i can't give you an amen but how about a hroomph

[Drew]

i can't give you an amen but how about a hroomph

Sure. Facebook has its good qualities, for sure... but the number of people I see mindlessly glued to their screens due to FOMO is... appalling. One of my wife and I's favorite pastimes while we're out to dinner is to count the number of people that are having functional, meaningful conversation... vs. the number of people that are glued to a screen.

[Bob Ross]

My favorite site for getting a balanced newsfeed has been AllSides
They make it very easy to see the different perspectives on any given issue by literally showing them side-by-side.
And occasionally they provide an inadvertant/unintentional laugh, such as the times when their Left and Center sides cover an issue but they can't even find a Right perspective...almost like those memes that say
CNN: "Trump impeached by House"
Reuters: "Trump impeached by House"
WSJ: "Trump impeached by House"
New York Times: "Trump impeached by House"
Fox News: "Justin Beiber shows off new hair style"