[jpthurman]

This is a good analysis. I’m often looking for something like this to help back my own intuition. Everyone sees the problem of media bias but it’s hard to define in more tangible terms. I appreciate the side by side of WSJ and NYT articles on the Canadian Truck Drivers - shows how subtle differences in reporting the same event skew left or right.

One way I’ve seen it couched is that the liberals have always owned the cultural high ground by having a preponderance of left-leaning, highly educated individuals in the ranks of the news media and in Hollywood - and that Fox News, Limbaugh, Bongino are an aggressive response to that.

When I talk to my own family members who skew right they talk pretty negatively about the media in general and particularly the NYT or WaPo - but they know and trust me. So I try to explain that many of the folks who work at these places are very similar to me (education, background, thinking) - and that they shouldn’t wholesale discount whatever they publish.

[PathOfEclipse]

I consider myself well-educated and have no respect for either the Washington Post or the New York Times. I don't ever wholesale discount what they publish, but I also don't trust anything they put out, especially if it shows a left-leaning bias in any way. I also do not rely on them for news; I get my news from other sources I trust more.

From: https://nypost.com/2020/07/14/bari-weiss-on-why-she-left-the...

"What rules that remain at The Times are applied with extreme selectivity. If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets.

Op-eds that would have easily been published just two years ago would now get an editor or a writer in serious trouble, if not fired. If a piece is perceived as likely to inspire backlash internally or on social media, the editor or writer avoids pitching it."

I should note that I probably disagree with Bari on most political issues, but she seems to have the intellectual honesty to notice corruption and also the courage to refuse to give into it.

[fortuna86]

You don't trust the NYT or Washington Post, but link to literal tabloids interviewing outrage grifters and right wing blogs? Surely cognitive dissonance only goes so far.

[jsnk]

> and that they shouldn’t wholesale discount whatever they publish.

This was my previous position, but in recent years, I wouldn't recommend this anymore. I believe that in the past at some point, there was a time when these mainstream media were more right than wrong, and more useful than useless if not harmful.

If you are an academic or someone who has time or interest to discern what mainstream media says is right or wrong, by all means, use them. But for average people, these mainstream media being sources of information doesn't pass usefulness or correctness than any other sources of information.

[Andrew_nenakhov]

Educated, thinking people can work very well for propaganda outlets. Most mainstream media sources are now just that.