[adamrezich]

yeah but we had that really comfortable era for awhile there, where mass information dissemination was centralized in the hands of a few major institutions, so everyone was more or less on the same page—all you had to do was pick up a newspaper, or listen to the radio, or watch news on television.

this gave us the illusion that we were in a world of Truth, because why would these centralized corporations ever lie to us, or massage the facts in any way? it's The News, of course it's inherently trustworthy.

then the Web came about, causing some to see cracks in the foundations. then the iPhone was released, social media took off, and now the news monoculture is almost (but not quite) dead, and we're back to fending for ourselves in this onslaught of information.

[jjoonathan]

We saw the cracks in the foundations but we also saw the foundations.

It cracks me up every time an alt media source throws shit at mainstream media for having journalistic standards that are far from perfect but still higher on an absolute level than said alt media. Retraction policies, always asking the accused for comment, citing sources, the list goes on. Unfortunately, it seems that people are more impressed by performative hatred of mainstream media than they are by the exercise of actual journalistic integrity, so I guess things will just get worse until (I have to hope) we figure it out again. Ah well, so it goes.