What is your opinion of the news media?

by minimus 491 Replies latest social current

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  Qcmbr

  My opinion of the media is that there's become too much choice. Everything is so quick now that even if a journalist is attempting to have any integrity the delay in verifying and fact gathering means they are sitting on yesterday's forgotten news. Now it's about speed, clicks and ad revenue. News has been utterly subverted into a means to attract advertising. The closest we have to real information is the twitter style live reports and they are hard to sort.

  I do think modern media has lost any ultimate drive for impartiality and trustworthiness and is much more akin to a sports team, every different media source has a pronounced bias as it seeks to attract fickle, niche consumers. We really are living in a 1984 scenario where , depending on which spin is being added you can read whether we are in fact fighting Eastasia or Eurasia.
• 

  LoveUniHateExams

  @bohm you've posted a good set of questions that highlight Putin's wrong doing/dodgy dealings.

  But the USA not being friends with Putin doesn't make a blind bit of difference - Putin acts the way he does regardless.

  And he's a guy who it's better to have inside the tent pisses out than outside the tent pissing in, if you get my drift.

  And here we may have evidence of the left's irrationality: it 'shuns' Putin because Putin is a tough guy and his government beats up gays, but instead the left has gotten into bed with an ideology that treats gays much worse.

  Go figure.

  As Putin isn't a nice man and Russia has serious wrinkles it should iron out, should America continue to shun him and refuse any kind of relationship with Russia?
• 

  bohm

  LUHE:

  You wrote that the Cold war ended 25 years ago, and I gave you a list of examples of Russian acting aggressively on in opposition to US/EU interests, thereby countering the idea (which I have seen several times) that this is about the cold war.

  Can we agree that Russia is currently acting in opposition to US/EU interests and are engaging in actions that are very damaging to the affected countries?

  Next your claim:

  But the USA not being friends with Putin doesn't make a blind bit of difference - Putin acts the way does regardless.

  That's interesting. Can you show me what you are basing that assessment of the impact of the sanctions on? (WHO, NATO, academia, thinktank, etc.; please PLEASE don't tell me you made it up).
• 

  LoveUniHateExams

  Can we agree that Russia is currently acting in opposition to US interests - not sure that it is. Trump doesn't think so.

  EU interests - yes, Russia may well be acting in opposition to EU interests.

  and are engaging in actions that are very damaging to the affected countries? - yes, Putin and Russia likely are.

  That's interesting. Can you show me what you are basing that assessment of the impact of the sanctions on? (WHO, NATO, academia, thinktank, etc.; please PLEASE don't tell me you made it up) - what I'm saying is this: whether America is friendly to him or unfriendly to him, Putin just does what he wants anyway. Although Obama wasn't friendly to him, Putin took Crimea. He'd have done the same if Obama was friendly. And I notice that NATO and the EU didn't stop Putin from taking Crimea. They were as much use as a tic-tac in a jockstrap.

  I also note you refuse to address the left's disgusting hypocrisy of condemning Russia's treatment of gays whilst it fawns over an ideology that treats gays much, much worse.
• 

  Simon

  bohm: you should maybe review history and the various promises that the west made not to expand (as part of German reunification) which were subsequently broken. NATO countries go right up to their doorstep.

  If it were the other way round, don't you think *we* would push back against them?

  Posturing and aggression has to stop on our side too.
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  bohm

  LUHE: Well, if you don't think Russia is acting against the interest of the US by it's many actions against the US political system, EU/NATO allies and violations of human rights you are right in thinking that Russia and the US should be friends...
• 

  bohm

  Simon: Well, I can't look at the EU/US record and that of Russia and see much of a moral equivalence..

  Russia is acting as a thug and a bully. I don't believe Russia has any particular claim over the politics of it's surrounding countries because they were controlled by the Soviet union 25 years ago.

  I think it would be very wrong of e.g. Poland to grab a part of Belarus and Poland would be well deserving of at the very least sanctions if they did.
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  LoveUniHateExams

  Well, if you don't think Russia is acting against the interest of the US by it's many actions against the US political system - I questioned this, and added that the US president might not think so.

  [if you don't think Russia is acting against the interest of] EU/NATO allies and [commits] violations of human rights - WTF?!

  I admitted that Russia is probably acting against the interests of the EU, NATO and states such as Latvia, and that Russia either commits human rights abuses or comes very close to it.

  I agree with most of your questions that highlight Russia's wrong doings, as a previous post by me said.

  But, here's a key question: does the US want Putin inside the tent pissing out or outside the tent pissing in?

  PS - again, it is to be noted that you still refuse to address the left's hypocrisy when it condemns Putin's treatment of gays whilst it cosies up to an ideology that treats gays much, much worse.
• 

  bohm

  LUHE -- Yes, Russia violates human rights, inside and outside Russia. The information is publically available.

  The "pissing outside the tent" rhetoric is easy but Russia is not a man.

  Russia is currently inferring in democratic systems over Europe. You think the response should be to "work with Russia"? What on earth does that even mean, clear airspace in Syria such that Russia can easier bomb civilians? Recognize Crimea and signal that the US will recognize Donbass as soon as it is 'liberated' which it will if the Ukraine army is defeated?
• 

  bohm

  PS - again, it is to be noted that you still refuse to address the left's hypocrisy when it condemns Putin's treatment of gays whilst it cosies up to an ideology that treats gays much, much worse.
  

  I condemn any such ideology. It is you who are asking why it would not be better to cozy up with Putin rather than maintaining sanctions (as conservatives and liberals agree is the right thing to do).

  I have a feeling where this is going, the moral low ground: But look at Saudi Arabia! "the left" is saying nothing!

  Please surprise me and don't seek the moral low ground. I am not "the left" but a person with my own ideas.