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by munk-a 1592 days ago
America has several prominent news organizations including one extremely well funded and staunchly conservative one, one pretty darn liberal one, and another one I'd argue is more pro-establishment than either liberal or conservative. So I don't think it's fair to argue there is overt government favoritism that is blocking out voices on either side - it seems to me that each time the majority control switches hands one side or the other of the media will greatly benefit from the preferential treatment given to it by the majority.

If that doesn't sound incorrect to you then I think it's down to the market. If the market willed the conservative voices to have a larger audience the market would so deliver. And if everyone dislikes market driven news sources then how the heck did we ever manage to defund NPR and similar programs?
1 comments
mgh2 1592 days ago
I think you are missing the point. We know that internet content and advertisement has largely replaced print and that most large tech corporations that profit from this business model lean liberal (Google, Facebook, etc.).

Wouldn't there be a bias on what ads get accepted in general? Especially when Facebook is largely human monitored and Google caters marketing to populous beliefs, with AI augmenting this effect?

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mywittyname 1592 days ago
Who can, with a straight face, call Facebook left leaning? At this point, the platform exists solely to spread conservative talking points.
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mcguire 1592 days ago
"...most large tech corporations that profit from this business model lean liberal (Google, Facebook, etc.)."

I find this to be a rather bizarre statement. While internally, both companies (as well as the other tech companies) are populated with highly educated employees, who tend to lean liberal, their public corporate behavior is neither particularly liberal or conservative until they are publicly embarrassed.

(Facebook and Twitter were an important component of Trump's election campaign in both runs, and at least the former is a big part of the COVID-denialism movement, right?)

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dfxm12 1592 days ago
Their anti-union behavior [1], [2] is certainly conservative. :)

1 - https://theintercept.com/2020/06/11/facebook-workplace-union...

2 - https://www.wired.com/story/document-reveals-more-google-ant...

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mgh2 1592 days ago
Sure, when it is convenient for their pocket lines.
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ipaddr 1591 days ago
Companies hold different core values. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc all share(d) west coast left leaning values that shaped the internet so it was more open than society. The do not evil motto fit the times. Today these companies are much bigger and global but part of their culture is still intact.

Liberals in 2022 are more like conservatives in 1970/1980 when it comes to nudity, community and free speech.

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munk-a 1591 days ago
A large number of companies, whether this seems ethical to you or not, still mostly follow the Friedman Doctrine[1] any political leanings they appear to have are adopted solely to increase their expected revenue. Some companies do violate this by altruistically acting to improve the world, but, honestly, these companies get a lot of crap from a lot of free-marketers for going against the natural market and "wasting resources on inefficiencies". A lot of companies may choose to support charities or offer employees volunteering hours, but these can also be viewed cynically as maneuvers to maximize PR and goodwill and avoid taxation.

At a really basic level I think it's important to remember that corporations are not people (not just in the citizens united manner) - anthropomorphizing them is dangerous since (except when wholly controlled by a single unimpeachable entity like a founder or single person business) their actions are dictated by consensus and consensus decision making is incompatible with human morality.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine

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