[twic]

Only peripherally related, but today i read a post by a former MSNBC producer, Ariana Pekary, about why she left, and how US cable news in particular is broken [1]:

> Context and factual data are often considered too cumbersome for the audience. There may be some truth to that (our education system really should improve the critical thinking skills of Americans) – but another hard truth is that it is the job of journalists to teach and inform, which means they might need to figure out a better way to do that. [...] Therefore, it’s particularly notable to me, for one, that nearly every rundown at the network basically is the same, hour after hour. And two, they use this subjective nature of the news to justify economically beneficial decisions. I’ve even heard producers deny their role as journalists. A very capable senior producer once said: “Our viewers don’t really consider us the news. They come to us for comfort.”

[1] https://www.arianapekary.net/post/personal-news-why-i-m-now-...