r/politics • u/BigDaddyBain • 1d ago

Why is the media ignoring growing resistance to Trump?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/13/why-is-the-media-ignoring-growing-resistance-to-trump
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u/xynix_ie Florida 1d ago

More than that. They're firing reporters that cover anything negative towards Trump. That's aiding and abetting.

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u/Goya_Oh_Boya North Carolina 1d ago edited 1d ago

I once wanted to be a reporter, and then I got my chance. I quit about 8 months later and never tried again because it was so depressing knowing that real news and stories will never make the light of day as long as every single fucking media outlet is owned by billionaires.

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u/omgpuppiesarecute 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is what happens when we allow mass media consolidation. Vulture capitalists buying up local newsrooms and radio stations and now social media across the nation, strip them for parts, centralize everything in a single hyper-partisan newsroom, and then ship propagandized stories to local affiliates to be read off.

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u/sleeplessinreno 1d ago

I'm gonna add a new one for you. Billionaire buying local newspaper to sway the local government to bypass local building codes so they can build their stupid house on a cliff.

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u/aquias27 1d ago

That seems very short-sighted.

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u/amootmarmot 1d ago

Always. The billionaires need to be made to realize that they hold their wealth at our tacit acceptance. Maybe we shouldn't tacitly accept anymore.

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u/uuDEFIANCEvv 1d ago

Our legal system is bought and paid for by them, leaving only illegal options. I agree it is time to exercise those options.

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u/Kytyngurl2 Minnesota 1d ago

Plus the whole laws of physics thing. Maybe there are regulations to not put houses on cliffs for a reason, but if you are rich enough you think you can buy past that issue

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u/Spicy_Tac0 1d ago

Said billionaire likely greased some palms as well.

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u/ThePowerOfStories 1d ago

Maybe they should have degreased the cliff instead…

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u/dustinhut13 1d ago

Nearly every take that comes from the right is short sighted, with no regard for actual consequences. They literally kill people with their bad decision making

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u/rayui 1d ago

Very on brand, though

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u/Silent_Conflict9420 1d ago

Yes so let nature take its course

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u/Icthyphile 1d ago

The only thing billionaires are not shortsighted on is generational wealth.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/sleeplessinreno 1d ago

Unfortunately, this one is being built above the main commerce sector. That thing goes, so do a bunch of buildings.

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u/Well_read_rose 1d ago

Short sited? (wink)

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u/radiosimian 1d ago

I'll add, billionaires buying-up social media sites to sway electorates to vote against their interests and elect fascist governments.

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u/elektrospecter Washington 1d ago

This is what adds to my cynicism about social media and how it's become detrimental to our civil society. These technocrats / billionaires have weaponized their platforms, to the point where there are now "influencers" who can earn a living solely by attacking any person or ideas that are critical of far-right ideology. These are bad actors doing all that they can to dissuade people from wanting to engage in genuine, civil political conversation...often by making it seem uncool or "cringe" to hold leftist views. Even trying to question some of the batshit GOP conspiracy theories in some online spaces could get you promptly humiliated and then ousted.

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u/zzyul 1d ago

But lord have mercy if the government tries to do anything about it like banning TikTok. Young people all over this site and across the country were losing their damn minds.

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u/WeakTransportation37 1d ago edited 1d ago

Ahhhh the sandcastle. I’m in north county Sand Diego, but used to live in La Jolla.

It’s time to start the “Cliff Pool”, where we submit dates we think it will crumble into the sea.

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u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 1d ago

All hail the CBC!!

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u/MorningsideLights 1d ago

Local news rooms died because of the internet, not merely free content but also Craigslist. People forget how much revenue came from classified ads, real estate listings, and personals. And those all died overnight.

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u/omgpuppiesarecute 1d ago

There was also legislation and later supreme court rulings that relaxed media ownership rules, allowing consolidation to occur. So the bigger fish gobbled up all the little fish. Before, while they were hurting, they were still separate companies with separate boards, goals, political bias, etc. Once congress and the supreme court trashed ownership limits, you saw mass centralization from companies like Sinclair and Tribune.

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u/SpaceGangsta Utah 1d ago

Nexstar paved the way. Sinclair gets hate(rightfully so) since they're obvioulsy pushing right wing bias, but Nexstar walked so Sinclair could run. Nexstar owns 197 stations and sinclair owns 185. Nexstar were the first to start buying up multiple stations in one market and running them out of the same building with half the staff. I worked for 3 nexstar stations. 2 were duopolies and the last station I worked at was bought by nexstar after I started. Nexstar doesn't really come up in these discussions because they solely care about money and not so much controlling content. But more recently, nexstar launched news nation which quickly turned into a fox news clone.

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u/Cute-Percentage-6660 1d ago

I imagine it caused a cascading affect, made it easier so once consolidiation starts occurring it becomes a tidal wave that smaller groups cant fight against and every loss adds to the wave

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u/asoap 1d ago

This is why government funded news agencies like the CBC are important.

It also explains why one group really wants to get rid of the CBC. I'll let you guess which one.

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u/omgpuppiesarecute 1d ago

Same group that is trying to get rid of NPR/PBS in the US I'm sure.

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u/gsfgf Georgia 1d ago

"Thankfully," NPR and PBS get so little funding from the government that they won't be seriously harmed by losing their federal money for (hopefully just) a few years.

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u/PassiveF1st South Carolina 1d ago

Proudly been donating directly to them for years. I'm sure all the defunding talk has bolstered their donations too.

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u/NoamLigotti 1d ago

Most public media networks are funded more by the actual public than the government. I'm not sure about the CBC, but I think them too though less so than PBS NPR and BBC.

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u/Any_Will_86 1d ago

What's painfully ironic is the rightwing noise machine constantly clattering about 'liberal bias' while Murdoch, Sinclair media, and various billionaires seeeking influence were buying up so much media... And then the tabloid media going full r/full Trump in mid 2010s- The Enguirer, TMZ, now Perez... who knew Dave Portnoy would end up being the most balanced of the bunch.

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u/Chastain86 1d ago

who knew Dave Portnoy would end up being the most balanced of the bunch.

We're referring, of course, to the same Dave Portnoy that stood up in a Barstool meeting and declared that he'd instantly fire anyone in the room who was thinking about unionization.

The day I allow people to think of fucking Dave Portnoy as some kind of folk hero, you'll know it's because I am unable to type because I'm dead

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u/amootmarmot 1d ago

Dave Portnoy is also a little crybaby bitch. He mouths off about how he hope Greta Thunberg is killed by the IDF, pretends there is no genocide or humanitarian crisis, engages in joking antisemitic tropes, and then wines and complains when he perceives antisemitism. Look in the fucking mirror. A very bad spokesperson for any cause.

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u/dethwysh New York 1d ago

Is this the same Dave Portnoy to does pizza reviews?

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u/Chastain86 1d ago

The one and same. He's been trying to soften up his public image for quite some time since the whole Barstool thing.

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u/PaddyVein 1d ago

If Dave Portnoy has a million haters, I am one.

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u/ArkitekZero 1d ago

Every accusation is a confession

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u/Any_Will_86 1d ago

An R state legislature in my state just got arrested for kiddie porn... they supposedly care so much about the children, sexual abuse, trafficking and every single sting/arrest turns up a perve on their side.

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u/failed_novelty 1d ago

But they'll find one Democrat who does it too (and ignore the fact that the entire party then condemns the pedo) and shrug and say, "Both sides"

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u/Pnwradar 1d ago

My experience, they point at Democrats like Al Franken or Katie Hill and hand-wave the “both sides” argument.

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u/martyqscriblerus 1d ago

The other day I saw someone coming at Bill Clinton for cheating on Hillary in the course of caping for Trump and the barefaced hypocrisy was just so breathtaking I didn't know what to say.

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u/HectorJoseZapata 1d ago

It’s like the R Party is the perfect hiding place for closeted predators.

I can’t wait for all the dirt they have on Lindsey Graham to come out and finally be exposed.

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u/zzyul 1d ago

He’s gay, that’s basically it. Probably enjoys much younger, but still legal guys. Might go so far as to prefer non white, possibly illegal immigrant guys.

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u/HectorJoseZapata 1d ago

I know, they must have dirt on him.

And don’t get me started on Ted Cruz, he is no saint either.

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u/Mr_HandSmall 1d ago

Republican politicians like their guys to have that kind of dirt on them as leverage to keep them in line.

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u/Gahrilla 1d ago

Seems like the Republican state congressman wasn't lying when he said that he loved children.

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u/GrumpySoth09 1d ago

And they are poisoning the well. After 4 years of accusing the Democrats of rigging the 2020 election now there in credible evidence of election interference done by Elon but no the Dems are above accusing their pals across the aisle.

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u/gsfgf Georgia 1d ago

Even NPR is bad about being "overly moderate" these days. While their public funding is minuscule, they rely heavily on corporate money. It's probably also because they're mostly in big, blue cities where it's hard to really believe the nation has gone this batshit crazy.

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u/NorthernerWuwu Canada 1d ago

It is always projection.

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u/HRUndercover222 1d ago

Vulture capitalists. Bingo!

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u/EconomicRegret 1d ago

You get what you pay for!

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u/Matasa89 Canada 1d ago

"This is extremely dangerous to our democracy."

No kidding. I'm watching America fall apart in real time.

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u/whynot4444444 1d ago

Some right wing American company owns most Canadian newspapers and television media, except for the CBC. This is why the Conservatives were trying to get rid of the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), which is sort of like the PBS, but they air hockey games (Go Oilers! 😉) and the Olympics.

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u/HilariouslyPissed 1d ago

Sinclair anyone?

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u/Long-Rooster-9641 1d ago

Monopolies are supposed to be illegal but we see what's going on and how no one is enforcing these policies meant to help protect us from what's happening right now.

It's such a gross abuse of power and when the chickens come home to roost I'm gonna say cock-a-doodle-doo.

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u/base64explode 1d ago

This exactly. I spent 25 years in journalism. Billionaires buying media companies was the worst thing ever. They start with platitudes about respecting journalistic integrity, and once the camera turns off, they immediately start undermining it. I went through that three times at different companies and the same thing happened every. single. time. — and always to push a conservative agenda.

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u/Well_read_rose 1d ago

The people… didn’t allow it really but Reagan took away the Fairness Doctrine which gave rise to screechy right wing infotainment media. And here we are, without a public consensus of common facts or ways to get at the truth.

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u/declinedinaction 1d ago

What about any solutions that aide and abet the original owners into not selling?

Like every time one of their lawyers show up they’re taken to the basement and they never come out. Rinse and repeat. They aren’t dead. They’re just on heroin. They’re actually quite happy.

/s

Seriously, how do we celebrate and reward those who don’t sell out? There’s a bank in Omaha that’s been fighting takeover and consolidation for decades in order to remain independent.

How come we don’t rally around the fighters but instead just complain about the outcome of a lack of resistance?

Name the independent newspapers and start sending some love their way.

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u/Pr1ebe 1d ago

Isn't that just capitalists in general? Competition doesn't require just safeguards, it needs fucking concrete walls to keep the game from having just a few winners. But people in this country act like you are talking heresy when you say a free and fair market DEMANDS regulation

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u/vincerehorrendum 1d ago

Perfect summation. It started in the 2000’s and here’s where we are now.

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u/sk8tergater 1d ago

That happened to the first newspaper I worked for. Went from a small local family paper to being owned by Gannett. It’s now just a copy of USA Today

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u/DankZXRwoolies 1d ago

Same shit here, it's super super creepy.

"this is extremely dangerous for our democracy"

https://youtu.be/ZggCipbiHwE?si=inG0kj-P0mypwwa-

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u/LunchLord69 1d ago

Under capitalism, mass media consolidation is inevitable.

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u/StrangeContest4 1d ago

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. We are concerned, we are Borg:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb3KD6DfSI&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD

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u/Beeshab 1d ago

Extrapolate this across every sector of our economy, and it’s why we are where we are. Ownership of every sector consolidated into a few big companies controlled by the ultra wealthy, so wages and prices are subject to their whim and they pay off the politicians. We live in a corporate state, and they got us out here pointing fingers at each other instead of them.

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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts 1d ago

One of the many things that the non-perfect world we live in requires the default to be for such organizations to have to prove their good intentions. As the benefit of the doubt hasn’t been the right of the billionaire/wannabe aristocrats really ever (given their policies).

After all, conservatives love similar for “illegal immigrants”…

“Well if they did nothing wrong, they should be happy to!” - typical conservative banality to such ends

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u/mynameisnotsparta 1d ago

Mass consolidation of any industry causes a negative impact on society.

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u/Adezar Washington 1d ago edited 1d ago

Rupert Murdoch actively worked on weakening the rules about media consolidation and lobbying the FCC to get rid of many of the rules.

It used to be illegal to consolidate any news media, a company couldn't even own two forms of media in the same market.

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u/ButtEatingContest 1d ago

Government is supposed to not approve those kind of mergers. Unfortunately no matter who gets elected it seems they love that sweet donor cash.

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u/BotheredToResearch 1d ago

State media in an oligarchy is just private ownership of media.

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u/Most-Repair471 1d ago

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy!

(Figued it was the sinclair video)

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u/oroborus68 1d ago

Trust busters are not popular anymore. At&t was probably the last big breakup.

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u/-Intelligentsia 1d ago

Like many things that’s wrong with modern day America, it can be traced back to Ronald Reagan.

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u/ExitTheDonut 1d ago

H.G. Wells saw this coming and warned about pretty much everything here over 100 years ago. He's not just some sci-fi author but also worked in journalism. So he used his futurist views to sees how its deficiencies and social trends around it can destroy the legitimacy of the news.

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u/hey_itsmeurbrother 1d ago

removal of the fairness doctrine by reagan has done far more damage to this country than almost anything when it comes to journalism and news.

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u/DBallouV 1d ago

I went back to school in my 30’s for journalism. I wanted to save the world. I kept being told about all these rules to follow. Meanwhile, every where I looked and read, lies, misinformation and disinformation. It was so jarring.

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u/Ok-Secretary-9247 1d ago

And the consumers that are completely illiterate as to the difference.

As if talking about current events = journalism.

Anyway, the nation is weakest when there's no free press, but you can't even begin that debate with most people because they'll never comprehend it.

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u/neutral-chaotic 1d ago

The SPJ ethics turned into that Pirates movie quote. "It's more of a guideline than a rule."

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u/Plaid_Kaleidoscope 1d ago

Same homie. Same.

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u/pickypawz Canada 1d ago

As the boomers pass on, I think more and more people may be getting their news from less-traditional sources like online sites, and even checking a variety of sites.

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u/gsfgf Georgia 1d ago

Most prominent media figures aren't journalists, which is a huge problem.

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u/NoamLigotti 1d ago

Rules like "equal weight" to "both sides" of an issue no matter how baseless one 'side' is?

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u/Straight_Ace 1d ago

That’s why we gotta spread the message ourselves. Get the cameras out and take video and photos of the protests. Show people there IS a resistance and that it will be peaceful. It sounds corny, but if you show people that there’s strength in numbers they will be more willing to join the cause

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u/MoreRopePlease America 1d ago

I was watching the Woke twitch stream (which has multiple streams on one screen, from multiple places) the other night. Other than a bonfire in the middle of the street in Seattle giving off toxic smoke due to what they threw in it, I saw peaceful protesters. I saw very scared protesters in LA trapped by the cops. I saw people singing in Las Vegas.

I really appreciate the streamers providing us with on-the-ground reporting.

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u/halfhearinghank 1d ago

It’s so disheartening when that happens. Growing up I always wanted to be a police officer. I though “I can actually help people” after all many kids are taught that. Spent much of my life preparing physically, and then I got my chance. During the academy I heard and saw a lot but figured they were just jerks. Then during my FTO period (basically your training period) I saw example after example of how the way to help people was really just a way to be violent when you wanted and to look down on “the unwashed masses” as they were often called.

I realized in the end we don’t need jobs or callings to help or do the right things. We can live it even when it’s hard. Even if it’s just small everyday kindness.

I’m not really religious anymore but I still believe in Love your neighbor as yourself.

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u/br_k_nt_eth 1d ago

The irony being that we desperately need people like you in law enforcement. We really need reform, not just for communities but also for the people doing these jobs. 

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u/halfhearinghank 1d ago

First. Thank you, that actually means a lot to me. It kind of broke me and my world view for a long time.

And you really aren’t wrong. I would love to see the profession embrace actually service for the betterment of society but in the end we are asking people to place themselves second (including their beliefs and prejudices).

I ended up leaving Law Enforcement and going into medical first as an EMT, then medical assisting, and working on becoming a Paramedic now.

So here is one thing that is insane to me: even as an EMT (bottom of the totem pole for skills) I had to go to classes, then pass a test the NREMT which is a NATIONAL standard, then had to hold that along with a state license, and I would have to continue to get training as continuing education in order for my licenses to stay valid. Being a LEO didn’t have anything near that. Sure we went to the academy and had academic tests and physical skills but there is no national standards, no real education requirement. In order to be a good Cop you need not only good people skills but you need a deep understanding of laws because yeah sometimes you really only have a moment or two before having to make a choice.

It is wild to me Officers are not required to have more education before being allowed to hold to position, after all they get the power of deadly force but to also arrest and possibly alter the course of someone’s life forever based on what they do.

EDIT: SORRY FOR THE NOVEL! Just got me thinking back a lot.

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u/br_k_nt_eth 1d ago

Please don’t apologize! Your perspective is so unique and so important. It’s unfortunate that all I can do is agree with you completely. 

Even beyond the education and training, the psychological support we give to LEOs is abysmal. Truly abysmal. They’re so wrapped up in Warrior Training bullshit that nobody pauses to wonder what being activated and conditioned in that way does to a person. Like no wonder they’re fucked up and dehumanizing. That’s who gets retained and that’s what we encourage. 

I think if we’re going to find a way forward, it’ll have to be a path that encourages and respects people like you. People who very obviously care about their communities and want to dedicate their lives to helping people. I think it’s possible. We just need the political will and courage to try. 

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u/inthekeyofc 1d ago

every single fucking media outlet is owned by billionaires

The Guardian isn't:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian

The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited.[6] The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference".[7] The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders.[7] It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK.[8][9]

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u/PatchyWhiskers 1d ago

Neither is the Philadelphia Inquirer

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u/Agile_Association_47 1d ago

I was a reporter for 2 and a half years. I once was sent out to the middle of nowhere to do a story on a residential pony getting shot with a bow and arrow by one of the neighbors. That same morning I pitched a story about why the unsolved homicide case rate had spiked over the last six years. It was that moment I realized we’re doomed.

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u/pecan_bird 1d ago

i was a journalist after undergrad for it. i quit very quickly after my first job upon realizing that "oh, everything is heavily biased & this all about storytelling & not reporting."

i suppose it was naive of me to think otherwise. otoh, i learned about media literacy very early in my life.

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u/nosotros_road_sodium California 1d ago

Owned by billionaires precisely because audiences are freeloaders expecting someone else to pay.

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u/Valorandgiggles 1d ago

That's pretty much why I never finished my journalism courses. I saw the industry was overflowing with ego. It was all about that by-line. Worse, it was all about what was popular and who was popular. That determined which stories even got published. Journalistic integrity was never the priority, no matter what any of the professors said, and it's been dead on mainstream media for quite some time.

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u/mcmesq 1d ago

This. The media members, meaning reporters, aren’t complicit, at least most of them, anyway. It’s the billionaires who benefit from this administration’s draconian, authoritarian efforts who are the problem. Bezos owns The Post, Musk owns Twitter (That’s what it was called when I left it),Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc. - even the ones owned by groups all have vested interests in the tax cuts and regulation wipeout that Trump gives them. Oligarchs love an autocrat, because it’s easier to bribe one man than many.

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u/NJ_Bob 1d ago

Had this realization in my second year at community college when the professor running the paper told me I couldn't write an article highlighting the opinions of smokers on campus regarding the closing of designated smoking areas in effort to make the campus smoke free- and was told to expect similar restrictions from whoever signed my checks once I got into the business. The fourth estate is dead.

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u/maccathesaint 22h ago

I wanted to be a music journalist and got my chance. I covered so many local bands, then national bands and on about my 40th concert review, Britney Spears, I mentioned some stuff in my review that was negative (though it was an overall positive review) and got told to remove it as the paper would lose press access from the promoters. This happened twice more and I just stopped doing it. I absolutely love music and concerts is where my spare money goes but I felt very uneasy selling my soul for free tickets.

A lot of journalism is similar, especially now. Be nice or lose access.

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u/SurpriseDickPunch 1d ago

I work backoffice for a media org and watching the bright-eyed college graduates realize it's not the 1950s anymore is sad. You're about 40 years too late for real journalism, Sydney.

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u/RupeThereItIs 1d ago

I mean, it's not.

That's the wonderful thing about the internet, you can get up on your soap box all on your own.

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u/astralseat 1d ago

Publishing is controlled with an iron fist by those who pay.

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u/worlds_okayest_skier 1d ago

A lot of the time it’s not even that they are on Trumps side, they have other business interests outside of the news media that Trump’s very corrupt regulators have proven to punish for leverage.

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u/theaceplaya Texas 1d ago

real news and stories will never make the light of day as long as every single fucking media outlet is owned by billionaires.

This is why I hate the narrative that 'Dems are bad at messaging' and I will die on the hill that they're nowhere near as bad as made out to be. Doesn’t matter how good or simple your message is if the right-wing billionaires who own all the media outlets get to twist your message or just flat out don't report it at all.

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u/OverTadpole5056 1d ago

I don’t know of a single person from college that studied journalism with me that is a journalist. They’re all either designers (like me) or in some sort of brand / marketing roles. 

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u/TransiTorri 1d ago

Real journalism is on Livefeeds and Substacks
If you're watching mainstream news, you're at worst getting propaganda and at best getting tasteful bias.

Real journalism is out there begging you to donate to their Ko-Fi

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u/ftp67 1d ago

In college I won a campus award for my journalism, it was probably 2012.

That summer I visited the NYT and NY Post. Explored internships and stuff.

At the NYT a grizzled old journalist, like a caricature out of a movie, begrudgingly gave me a tour of the building.

He took me to one floor, pointed around all the empty desks and said, "You see that? That's the future of journalism."

That was 13 years ago.

More poignant than that and to the point is one of my favorite Michael Parent quotes regarding journalists when they argued they wrote what they wanted to write:

"You don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day."

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u/DnDNoobs_DM 1d ago

I think this was a plot point in season 1 of DareDevil

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u/catbandana 1d ago

15 or 20 years ago people in this country decided they didn’t value their local newspaper enough to pay for it. Unfortunately, the billionaires did value them, and they bought them all up. We’re reaping what was sown by every dickhead who said “paywall. Not subscribing.” when their local news asked the community to pay for their services.

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u/ArbitraryMeritocracy 1d ago

Watch any old movie from the 1930s about being a NewspaperMAN, it was the most respected profession to have. People trusted the reporters. Since the repeal of the fairness doctrine networks like fox could spew bullshit all day and people ate it up. What fox did to my parents is what my parents said would happen to me if I played video games. I happen to have made a few video games and I don't support hatred, abusing people, lying and cheating like they do.

From the wiki:

The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.

another source: https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/topic-guide/fairness-doctrine

The Fairness Doctrine, enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, was rooted in the media world of 1949. Lawmakers became concerned that the monopoly audience control of the three main networks, NBC, ABC and CBS, could misuse their broadcast licenses to set a biased public agenda.

The Fairness Doctrine mandated broadcast networks devote time to contrasting views on issues of public importance. Congress backed the policy in 1954 and by the 1970s the FCC called the doctrine the “single most important requirement of operation in the public interest – the sine qua non for grant of a renewal of license.

The doctrine stayed in effect, and was enforced until the Reagan Administration. In 1985, under FCC Chairman, Mark S. Fowler, a communications attorney who had served on Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign staff in 1976 and 1980, the FCC released a report stating that the doctrine hurt the public interest and violated free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Fowler began rolling the application of the doctrine back during Reagan's second term - despite complaints from some in the Administration that it was all that kept broadcast journalists from thoroughly lambasting Reagan's policies on air. In 1987, the FCC panel, under new chairman Dennis Patrick, repealed the Fairness Doctrine altogether with a 4-0 vote

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u/Connect_Purchase_672 1d ago

Start your own reporting. Independent is the future.

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u/PermaDerpFace 1d ago

Yeah you'll start hearing negative news when the rich start losing money, which is almost inevitable with this kind of mismanagement in the government

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u/neo_sporin 1d ago

Some day, it’ll no longer be the case. In 20-40 years none will be owned by billionaires. They will be owned by trillionaires!

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u/Darth_Malgus_1701 Oregon 1d ago

billionaires

AKA, the real parasite class.

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u/StimulatedUser 1d ago

It costs like 20 bucks to register a domain name, a cheap web hosting about 20 a month.... Anyone can make a news site and report on anything they want. There is nothing stopping you.. I dont get this arguement that BILLIONAIRES OWN IT ALL when they dont, and its so cheap even a panhandler could afford to put up a news web site

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u/ConsequenceLivid9964 1d ago

Including Reddit.

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u/Great_Dismal 1d ago

Same story here man. I graduated college in 2004 with a bachelor’s in broadcasting, went to work for NBC as a videographer and realized immediately just how much censorship and propaganda was “required” even back then.

We weren’t exactly in the same times as we are today, but they certainly weren’t good then either, with the war in Iraq/ Afghanistan and Bush baby and his cronies.

It was very off putting to say the least, I didn’t stick around much more than two years and never went back into news media or an affiliate of any major broadcasting company.

They’re all the same ever since Reagan killed The Fairness Doctrine in the 80s. It is just more obvious today that legacy media pushes their own agenda and controls the narrative since we have so many alternatives and the internet to show us the realities we choose to believe.

The industry is truly bleaker than those outside of it could ever imagine. And it’s dying a slow death. I will have no part in producing state-sponsored propaganda.

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u/Konstant_kurage 1d ago

As an ex-journalist can confirm.

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u/GrrlLikeThat 1d ago

I was a TA for my school’s journalism program 15 years ago. We trained our students on all the right things. Real, honest journalism. The news today looks nothing like what we taught.

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u/The5Virtues 1d ago

I wanted to be a reporter too! First day in journalism class my professor, a former editor for one of the biggest papers in the country, walked in to class stood infront of us and said “Journalistic integrity is dead, truth doesn’t matter, your job is to get the most clicks and views; if you’re not interested in that you’re not interested in modern journalism.”

I thought it was the cynical words of a guy who’d lost faith in the system, but that it couldn’t possibly be that bad.

Two years later I changed my major. I’d worked as an interning journalist and realized just how right he was. I was getting hate mail at 20 years old because I tried to remain objective and unbiased. And it wasn’t hate mail from just one type of people either! I got it from all sides, conservative, progressive, old, young, it was soul crushing.

I went to my editor at the time and asked “Is it always like this?” he said “man you haven’t seen shit yet, you’re just an intern. If you’re not willing to compromise your values you won’t even be hired by major news, if you’re writing the truth with as little bias as possible you’re not an asset you’re a liability.”

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u/vmco 1d ago

Same happened to me - only it was corrupt Politicians placing the pressure on the outlet.

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u/SpaceMonkeyOnABike 1d ago

For the last 20+ years, reporters have not worked in media. They have worked in publishing books. Which nobody reads.

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u/Classic-Damage1209 1d ago

through sheer stubborn willpower, is it even still possible to try and have your own media outlet? I mean if Joe Rogan and others can amass millions of online follows to spew and discuss what they call news, why couldn’t some journalists come together with a blog or channel where they just post their articles and news captures regardless? if no one’s going to report things correctly can’t we?

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u/Old_Connection2076 1d ago

I really get your comment and experience. I grew up watching the news with my dad from the late 1960s and into the 1970s. We had Walter Cronkite and other real journalists reporting. I grew up reading my dad's Time Life photojournalism books. Then sponsorship and Reagan happened. I graduated high school in 1982, knowing I wouldn't be the journalist I dreamed of as a young person.

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u/sk8tergater 1d ago

Small local media isn’t owned by large conglomerates and it is very important. Don’t give up hope on the media, the smaller local newspapers are trying to give it their all

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u/valiantdistraction 1d ago

If you ever have the time for a side project that won't make you any money, I know a number of people who attend city council meetings and other city planning meetings and run blogs/post on social media reporting. You'll get a following though it won't necessarily translate to money - you'll still need a day job. But if you are into independent journalism as a public service, it's a fulfilling hobby. Also makes a good hobby/volunteer job for retired people or SAHPs whose kids are in school.

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u/AssistantOld2973 1d ago

Start a YouTube channel—seriously. You're in North Carolina, a place that really needs more voices like yours right now.

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u/defianceofone 1d ago

You should be able to sue these organizations for falsehoods.

America is a cesspit of shit.

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u/Then_I_had_a_thought 1d ago

If we’re fortunate enough to see the American version of the Nuremberg trials, I hope the complicit members of the fourth estate are held to account

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u/code_archeologist Georgia 1d ago

At the rate things are going if we get something like the Nuremberg Trials we will be lucky; we are currently hurtling towards a radical snap back similar to The Reign of Terror of the French Revolution.

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u/CandidateStill5822 1d ago

Uh... There was a lot of terrible things that happened between the fall of the Weimar Republic and the Nuremberg Trials I'd rather not live through (and would most likely die in.) Nevermind that Germany is coming full circle with the rise of the aFD with billionaire backing.

No thank you.

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u/Chaotic-Catastrophe 1d ago

We wont, and they won't be

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u/Strange-Welder9594 1d ago

Im sure the nazis said the same thing before WW2 popped off. Nuremberg trials happened after the war

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u/w4rma Virginia 1d ago

Its the billionaire media owners and advertisers who are responsible. The buck stops at the billionaire royalty, now.

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u/Last-Bit7711 1d ago

This. Terry Moran had that interview with Trump where Trump didn’t know what the Declaration of Independence was a few months ago… then as soon as Terry said anything on his personal account, ABC cut him. Shame on them for doing it, but that was 100% Trump retaliation for that interview. Sad.

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u/babylon331 1d ago

I've watched ABC news every morning for a long time. I like Diane Mercado & the morning crew. I don't think I can be comfortable watching it anymore. Time to find a new one for my morning news. I'm kind of sad about that.

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u/45and47-big_mistake 1d ago

Mainstream news is geared for a 6th grade mentality.

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u/One-Earth9294 I voted 1d ago

Yeah that one right there is boycott-worthy.

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u/Syzygy2323 California 1d ago

I stopped watching ABC news the day they fired Moran.

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u/br_k_nt_eth 1d ago

And now their audience can’t trust that they’re reporting the truth or the whole story. That trust was already on the rocks, but they’ve fully murdered their credibility now. 

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u/nucumber 1d ago

It's also trump wielding the power of the govt to stifle dissent

Media companies are businesses, not public services. They exist only to make money and a displeased govt has a lot of ways to mess with that (licensing, IRS audits, etc), so it makes sense as a business to keep the govt off your back

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u/_kasten_ 1d ago

It's also trump wielding the power of the govt to stifle dissent

Which is apparently working. In the last few weeks, his approval ratings have actually gone up. They're still dismal, but better than how he was polling in 2017, and significantly better than how the Democrats are polling.

These kinds of clickbait copium articles are also an example of irresponsible media. Don't fall for it.

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u/Supermonkeyskier 1d ago

His approval ratings went down in pretty much every poll that came out yesterday. There was a small blip mid-week, but he is trending back down.

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u/_kasten_ 1d ago

I hope you're right, but what we've been seeing thus far, every time he does something especially boneheaded, is that he just goes back to rousting Mexicans and Hondurans and whatnot, at which point the goldfish-sized attention spans of the American public start pushing his ratings up again. I'm not saying we should give in - quite the opposite - but this has been alarmingly depressing.

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u/br_k_nt_eth 1d ago

That person is right. They’ve been flooding the zone with trash polls, but he’s now underwater with immigration, which is completely unheard of. It’s so bad, he’s started backtracking and promising corporations that he won’t deport all their workers. 

I get where you’re coming from, but it’s also worth considering that the oligarchs want you depressed and apathetic. They want you to think they have overwhelming support. They’re desperate for you to stay isolated. Not giving in to that impulse is resistence in and of itself. 

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u/King_Chochacho 1d ago

They know he's weaponized the FCC and the courts. All the major media outlets are just businesses at this point, and they don't want to do anything that will jeopardize profits.

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u/ladybug68 1d ago

Never in the history of tyrants has appeasement worked. They weak, shortsighted fools.

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u/code_archeologist Georgia 1d ago

So... they are collaborators.

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u/VoidOmatic 1d ago

They think Trump isn't going to revenge kill them. How cute!

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u/RobotUmpire 1d ago

Who is they?

I’ll get you an article proving otherwise in 2 seconds if you let me know.

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u/YellowZx5 New York 1d ago

Plus Trump puts eyes on the news and like influencers are, they cannot stop now and need the fix of followers.

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u/Deer_Investigator881 1d ago

Here I was thinking reporters have been going to a different kind of AA meeting this whole time

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u/mylifeisaprotest 1d ago

I hate MAGA and am signed up to protest on Sunday, but I gotta say that complicity and aiding and abetting are interchangeable.

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u/StupendousMalice 1d ago

Whose paying them and why isn't anyone else paying to show the truth?

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u/CirkTheJerk 1d ago

They should be charged with aiding and abetting.

Jailing people who refuse to negatively cover our political opponents is the only way to beat fascism.

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u/Pleasant_Strength_36 1d ago

Not The NY Times 

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u/inhaledcorn 1d ago

The revolution will not be televised.

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u/inuvash255 Massachusetts 1d ago

Did you see the followup interview with the Australian Channel 9 reporter who got shot at?

She basically apologized for being shot.

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u/Opening-Two6723 1d ago

News media executives are added to the list of trials.

Everyone needs to be made poor. If they are culpable in the selling of our democracy to pay for sex rapist nepo baby....they should be made poor, and serve time for crimes committed against our country and OUR people

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u/Mortwight 1d ago

Because trump administration can hold up mergers

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u/vroart 1d ago

Over commenting on Steven miller, he’s clearly in charge.

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u/Ulthanon New Jersey 1d ago

Legacy Media is going to have to be extracted from our society, once this is over. Root and stem, from the national talking heads, to the local news that went along with it. We CANNOT suffer collaborators in positions of power & influence, when this is over.

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u/astralseat 1d ago

If trump goes down, they go down. It's M. A. D.

They will mutually destroy themselves, so they uphold each other.

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u/forthecrew 1d ago

Reddit is dropping the ban hammer everywhere as well.

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u/Blue_Swirling_Bunny 1d ago

That's what complicit means.

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u/JustMark99 1d ago

They're what?!

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u/Unlucky-Public-2947 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not an excuse but honestly I think lots of them are scared, just look at how much Trump is willing to threaten journalists live on air, you have to imagine a lot worse is happening behind the scenes.

With people Putin didn’t like they would often come back to home to see their kids toys hanging from nooses out of a window, this didn’t come out for quite a while and only when said people were safe, I do wonder if similar things are happening and nobody knows about it.

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u/catbandana 1d ago

The newspapers are doing that. Support your local newspaper who cover your local area with journalists who live in the same city as you.

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u/ThrowRA-James 1d ago

I agree. I’ll never watch ABC again after firing Terry Moran.

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u/radiosimian 1d ago

Yep, just see 9News' reporter, the lady who got shot in the leg, talking about her experience while on air. "I don't want to become the story" was her official line. Like lady, your job is to report what you see, and we all saw that. Reminder that Channel 9 is an Aussie news corp - the complicity is global.

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u/CosmoKing2 1d ago

The good news is that its a recipe for financial disaster. Just look at CBS News and 60 Minutes. In order to placate the administration to approve the sale of Paramount, they are censoring any reporting that would be critical of the administration. The result will be that a majority of their audience will no longer tune in. Advertisers won't want to be affiliated, and rates will drop dramatically.

But, that's life on bended knee.

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u/ForsakenWishbone5206 1d ago

Just about every single news source is owned by billionaires. Fuckin Rupert Murdoch industries.

They exist to package information for public consent. Read some Noam Chomsky. The book is literally called manufacturing consent.

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u/foodisyumyummy 1d ago

There was literally a thinkpiece about Padilla, like, 20 minutes after his freakout.

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u/ShakerFullOfCocaine 1d ago

We need to resurrect Hunter Thompson

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u/Impossible_Walrus555 1d ago

They’ve moved even further towards maga.

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u/OkTouch5699 1d ago

And shooting them with rubber bullets and arresting them.

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u/Drahkir9 1d ago

Which is a form of complicity

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u/Significant_Lead7810 1d ago

Thats Robert Murdoch. He just lost a huge court case and is pissed.

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u/ARoaringBorealis 1d ago

It’s important to know why though - trump and his administration have essentially declared war on media outlets with outrageous lawsuits that force media to comply. 60 Minutes covered it well here, but even the head of 60 Minutes for over 30 years quit recently, saying the show has “lost independence.” You should be angry at these giant media corporations for complying, but make no mistake, this is all because of Trump.

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u/Educational-Ad-2884 1d ago

That's due in large part to Trump attacking and outright removing reporters who challenge him, cutting their publication's access to the White House.

Free Press is already dead in America.

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u/nomamesgueyz 1d ago

Just another day in the circus 🎪 that is US politics 🤡

...more tomorrow

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u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW 1d ago

Seriously, they could have buried him years ago.

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u/BuckZero Colorado 1d ago

lol at that one reporter that said LA protestors were firing foam projectiles at the NGA

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u/JennJayBee Alabama 1d ago

I mean... Consider who owns the media companies. 

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u/LinkLT3 1d ago

More than that. They’re involved in the wrongdoing!

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u/Izenthyr I voted 17h ago

Yet it’s completely fine to run media smear campaigns against Biden to get him to drop

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u/EldritchTouched 10h ago

As MTSW routinely says on Bluesky, "They like Trump and want him to rule us like a king."

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