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by heisenzombie 2221 days ago
I’m sure this is not an original comment, but it’s interesting to see what you’ve classified as left/right. It must be difficult given that there is not really one axis of left/right and that “the centre” is highly relative. To me, seeing the BBC and Euronews in the “left” section is pretty funny, but I guess it’s true relative to US politics.

Is there anything you’ve learned about “the left media” and “the right media” from doing this? Do you think your sources are equidistant from “the centre”?

2 comments

You are describing the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window - and in the US it is very narrow and entirely shifted into the authoritarian right side.
The fact US politics call them "left" and "right" is meaningless even, given how right-shifted US politics are (By EU standards, only US extreme-progressives are actually in the european "Left").

Not to mention americans have demonized "the center" as some "if you're somehow trying to consider all the facts you're a coward who can't decide" type of thing. The two sides being "at war" drives TV/website engagement and that's all that matters to the people writing the headlines.

It just so happens that currently, one of the two "sides" relies heavily on disinformation; so anything that tries to fight disinformation (including remaining impartial) is that side's enemy. So those things end up being considered "left-wing".

Truly, the united states has four political parties: The Media Left, the Media Right, the Political Left, and the Political Right. Nearly every american you know is part of the first two; the last two don't make for good TV.