• Phegan@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Mainstream media benefits from another trump presidency. Trump drives ratings. Ratings means sponsors, sponsors mean revenue, revenue means shares going up.

    They are corporations, not services. It’s illegal for them to not do what helps their shareholders.

    Mainstream media benefits from another trump presidency.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      It’s illegal for them to not do what helps their shareholders.

      This has been repeatedly shown false. They have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders, not a legal one. As Tim Apple once told an investor asking about gains on their push for environmental greenness as a company, he told them that if all they want is for the number to go up they should get out of the stock.

      Cook then offered his own bottom line to Danhof, or any other critic, one which perfectly sums up his belief that social and political and moral leadership are not antithetical to running a business. “If that’s a hard line for you,” Cook continued, “then you should get out of the stock.”

      https://alearningaday.blog/2016/03/12/tim-cook-on-roi

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Corporations do not have to prioritize profit above everything. The old case where that was in question is quite nuanced and worth reading about.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Businesses also have wide latitude in how they interpret profit mandate. They’re allowed to make purely gut-driven predictions and take huge risks with little evidence on the grounds that a payoff is on the horizon.

        Tim Cook could blandly assert that environmental greenness does increase profits and then just hand wave in some fuzzy math about hypothetical waste management or non-renewable material costs or public sentiment. And who could argue with him over a 20 year time horizon?

        You can say whatever you want as a CEO and most people will reflexively trust you simply because you’re in a position of authority.

    • xenoclast@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They ARE services. They’re not services run for the benefit of the public.

      I think we all got a little messed up by the few years that journalism had a bit of credibility. For the vast vast vast majority of humans on earth all forms of mass communication have been propaganda for those in power… I mean look at the Catholic Church for the best modern example

        • wagesj45@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          I’m gonna posit a guess of around 1930 through the late 90’s when the internet started eating everyone’s lunch for “free”.

          (I am not a news historian and this is purely a guess.)

    • Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yea it’s now an election of the old school vs new school and the passing of the torch. Boomers are going down kicking and screaming

    • banner80@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      I think that’s a good point. I wonder if reasonable politicians should prepare a few outlandish talking points to give the media something tasty to sink their teeth into. Like do a normal interview saying normal thoughtful and nuanced things, but also throw in a couple specific wacky clickbait nuggets so the media has what they crave for their news cycle.

      Like, what if Kamala had worked this into her interview: Once his criminal trials are over, I don’t think imprisonment in Attica would be appropriate for Trump as an ex president.

      Leave it at that and have the media frenzy over it, even though it means nothing. Then they won’t spend as much time trying to invent drama over her interview because she gave them some drama to go with.

      I think that’s what Trump is best at. Trump knows most of his base are dumb and the media are thirsty clickbait whores, so he treats his interviews with the decorum of a 2-bit bordello and ends up getting tons of attention that works for his base.

      • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I feel that would only fuel the misinformation machine with more fake news. I’d be interested in knowing your rationale and how you feel it would be beneficial to anybody except the news organizations.

        • banner80@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          I’m talking about controlling the narrative a bit more. Dems are masters at speaking ineffectively and letting the media decide the narrative. And the media spends half its time reacting to whatever outlandish thing Trump said. And Trump says the outlandish stuff on purpose to control the narrative.

          So 80% of the time we are in this cycle: Trump says something insane on purpose -> media reports it like it’s half presidential and worth talking about -> Dems are asked to comment on it -> Dems try to ignore it or reply something sensible that gets buried.

          The effect is this: Trump controls the narrative -> the whorish media is happy to repeat his BS and normalize him for clicks -> whatever Dems want to talk about doesn’t matter. Low effort voters see Trump and his message everywhere courtesy of the whorish media. Trump remains a viable candidate.

          I’m proposing that Dems could try to join the cycle at the input level instead of the tail end. If they say some aggressive or outlandish things about Trump, they’d be trend setters at the start of the cycle instead of irrelevant at the end of it. Like what happened with the “weird” thing, when seemingly by accident the Dems landed one narrative origination that left Trump on the receiving end unable to shake it.

          My point is that this shouldn’t happen by accident. The Dems should plan it as part of narrative control. Keep a schedule and say another big thing once per week. Give the media something big to talk about, keep an aggressive message on Trump and his prosecutions, crimes, terrible policies and so on. Anything that controls the narrative, puts Trump on the defensive, and makes the media spread the Dems message instead of giving Trump free publicity.

          When the Dems choose not to do this, they are letting the media decide what narrative they want and the media will always prefer to go with sensationalized BS as much as possible, which usually means going over to Trump to say something insane so they have more fodder to normalize and talk about for clicks.

          • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I’m not usually one to take this stance, but just because the Republicans are doing it does not mean the Democrats should too.

            It seems to me that your main reason for your stance is that you feel the Republicans do these outlandish things, which makes them “newsworthy” and stand out in the crowd, while the Democrats are left sitting in the back mumbling like they’re Milton from Office Space. You think that if they start saying their own outlandish things, it’ll somehow balance the scales in the news media and get people back to paying attention to the Democrats and focusing on their real agenda.

            The way I see it is that Republicans, while loud, are very much not well respected by most anybody that makes a difference to the Democrats. In other words, acting like Republicans to get attention would be counterproductive as it would greatly offend their base. You don’t win an argument by being louder than your opponent. You definitely don’t win when your answer is to model “I know you are, but what am I” responses.

            If anything, no one wins an argument at all. What you want to do is to flip the narrative by remaining calm, focusing on the facts, and pointing out the flaws in your opponents arguments. You repeat what they’ve said, ask them to explain it further or that you don’t understand what they mean, and then hold them accountable for their responses.

            • banner80@fedia.io
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              2 months ago

              It seems like we are talking about different things.

              Also,

              What you want to do is to flip the narrative by remaining calm, focusing on the facts, and pointing out the flaws in your opponents arguments.

              We know with well-tested confidence that that does nothing for half the electorate.

              • kautau@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Or more than half of the electorate. There are dems on lemmy that want blood and conflict, who would rather see trump killed instead of being defeated in an election and being sent to prison. There are independents who will vote for whoever appears “stronger” on video as opposed to who is more likely to work for their interests. The position of president has been “who the american people (and remember, corporations are people) love from their media exposure to said candidate” far more than “who has the best policy” for a long time

            • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 months ago

              I’m not usually one to take this stance, but just because the Republicans are doing it does not mean the Democrats should too.

              just so we’re clear and and the same page here, the reason why trump is in power at all, and is allowed to do this bullshit is BECAUSE of this rhetoric, if we don’t engage with it at least a little bit we’re going to keep losing to the worst part in existence right now, we do need to play dirty with them, but only enough to get one up on them.

              • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                I disagree with the idea that democrats need to play dirty, even just a little bit, to get one up on the republicans. Look at the whole “weird “ thing that riled up the R’s and excited the D’s — there was nothing dirty about it.

                No, what the D’s need to do is keep up with intelligently pushing back. D’s don’t need to be louder or annoying or dirty. They do need to stop turning the other cheek, and ignoring the rhetoric from the R’s. They need people to stand up and say No to the R’s.

                I saw a video where someone was saying that there is a difference between being peaceful and passive. That being peaceful does not make you weak. I believe that sentiment applies very well here: the D’s need to stop being passive.

                • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  2 months ago

                  I disagree with the idea that democrats need to play dirty, even just a little bit, to get one up on the republicans. Look at the whole “weird “ thing that riled up the R’s and excited the D’s — there was nothing dirty about it.

                  ok so, this is what i mean by “dirty” in this context, previously dems have never really done this, as we’ve held this moral high ground. I’m not saying we should make shit up and lie, i’m just saying we should get into the mud and roll around a little bit,

                  Regardless, i will leave you with the idea that the only way to fight fascism is education… What do you do when fascism has already crept up? Good question.

      • Soup@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’m not sure Trump actually has any idea what’s going on around him. His nonsense just doesn’t get caught by the equally stupid base so he looks like he’s playing them. The only people that would support him are the dumbest people imaginable so it’s like saying I’m a skilled athelete based solely on the fact that I can absolutely obliterate my competition…which just so happens to be a bunch of toddlers.

        This isn’t to say he’s not a massive threat and that the base won’t vote him in if Americans don’t vote against him but let’s not give him any undue credit here.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Democrats don’t want to create any conservative enthusiasm, so they tend to be very vague and cagey with regard to what happened to Trump next.

        Republicans think harsh words juice their base, so they’re a lot more hot blooded with their propositions and predictions.

  • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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    2 months ago

    It’s a low bar. If we’re now judging candidates in comparison to Trump then we’re in trouble.

    Trump isn’t the standard. He’s an anomaly, and we should aim way higher.

    • ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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      2 months ago

      Well, Trump did make a ton of people madly follow him.
      It may be leading the world to ruin, but it is still leading.

      I’d put the impact rating as “high”.
      The direction being undesirable.

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      I don’t agree. A scale has to be useful for separating what you’re measuring. Any scale that puts Kamala as “low” is like trying to measure the size of a banana and an orange in kilometers, they’ll both measure “low”. There is no decent measure by which Trump is anything but scum. Kamala (or just about anyone who isn’t a Trump voter) ranks so far above Trump that they can’t be anything under “excellent” on a scale designed to meaningfully compare these candidates.

      Obviously the scale we should be using for our politicians SHOULD be better, and that’s because we should have produced better candidates. With the candidates we have, we don’t get to use a better scale because in doing so we’ll be playing right into Republican narrative of “they’re both the same” or Kamala is “low” quality so vote for Trump.

  • Pandemanium@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Which pundits actually said that? Most of what I’ve read, people were saying she did pretty well. But you sure got people here believing this meme.

    • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Fox news. Daily beast. Daily Mail. etc. The usual suspects. But no matter what she said or did, they were going to bash her. If she were the 2nd coming they would say she was a “trans ultra-left authoritarian”.

  • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    The winner of a political debate is whoever the audience likes more. It unfortunately has nothing to do with being a reasonable person.

    • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      It’s fucking absurd and embarrassing that crowd participation is even permitted in televised presidential debates.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      This is the folly of representative democracy. It inevitably becomes less about policy and instead a popularity contest between figureheads.

      Representative democracy has run its course, and the problems it solved (the fact that it’s not practical for everyone to attend places of government from far away) have all but been solved by technology. Bring on direct democracy.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Media is a circus. Dont clown around or stick head in the lions mouth and youre gonna get a low score

  • Farid@startrek.website
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    2 months ago

    When the other candidate’s performance is “rock bottom”, “low” is a massive step up. Not doing the listed things shouldn’t raise the evaluation to “high”, because that’s the bare minimum.

  • don@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I was under the impression that we all know that nearly all media pundits are greedy and suffer from some form of dementia or other brain disease.

    • trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah idk why you’re getting downvoted, that was one of the most disappointing parts of it.

      She could have tried to wriggle around it a bit more rhetorically but she just went “I’ll bang my head against the wall with Israel just like we’ve been doing till now.”

      In general it was a pretty bad showing from Harris, and Walz did only a bit better.

      • orcrist@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        The downvotes are because that topic matters a lot, but it’s also used to try to force people to become single issue voters, so they’ll vote against her, all the while knowing that Trump loves genocide too, but let’s not mention that.

        So if you wanna attack Harris on that issue, please do. You should. But remember to include Trump’s stance as well, if you’re trying to talk about an upcoming election.

        Or hey, do whatever you like, right? It’s just that simplistic comments often get simplistic responses (i.e., downvotes).

          • wagesj45@fedia.io
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            2 months ago

            I generally consider Republican candidates and ideas non-starters. Not even worthy of consideration. When I criticize Democrats, the “Trump is not an option” is implied.

            • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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              2 months ago

              But then your comments are identical to those posted by people whose goal is to undermine democratic support through single issues in order to create voter apathy and let Trump win.

              It’s not the message people are downvoting it’s the effect. If you don’t do anything to separate your message from this type of malicious attack, it’ll unfortunately be taken as that.

              • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                You’re making bold assumptions about people based simply on the fact that they are criticizing the people currently in power for what they’re currently doing. That’s your fault not theirs stop doing that

                • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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                  2 months ago

                  I’m not assuming anything.

                  The right is attacking the left to try to reduce voter turnout. They do this by criticizing Democrats for “not being left enough” even though they are the most viable leftish option and the Republicans are worse at that exact thing. They’re doing this all over the world right now but just in the US. We HAVE to stop this attack.

                  When you criticize the left for not being left enough without adding nuance or adding that the right is much worse on that topic, you’re either purposefully or accidentally participating in the attack whether you like it or not.

                  No criticism, just facts.

            • trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Because everyone who is interested enough in politics to discuss it online is either voting for him or aware of that fact already.

              • exanime@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                So? If one of the 2 outcomes will inevitably come true, we really cannot talk about one without at least weighting the other

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        i mean, it was a pretty bad show in terms of the one question she was asked. I’m not really sure why that’s surprising to people.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    she also shifted right. she’s gonna ruin the enthusiasm if she keeps going like this.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      how so? I see nothing to indicate that she shifted right, just that her campaign is pushing for the moderate voters, both on dem and republican sides, which is absolutely a good strategy.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          she’s appealing to moderates, the perceived “right wing appeals” is just a policy based ripped straight from the ages of republican rhetoric that no longer exist, none of those are antithetical to the democrats in anyway, they’re all super relevant, it’s just dramatic irony.

          Harris herself is pretty far left, tim walz is from minnesota, politically left.

          • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            She has the same views as Biden and Pelosi. If you think that’s pretty far left have you ever heard of Bernie Sanders or anyone who would actually vote for m4a, decriminalizing immigration, or putting an arms embargo in Israel?

            • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 months ago

              bro she was in cali previously to this. Cali is a pretty regularly dem state, one of the more dem leaning ones in the entire country.

              Obviously bernie is farther left, but we’re getting into the territory of literal communists and socialists at that point.

                • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  2 months ago

                  broaden my horizons to what? Candidates that i don’t fundamentally align with? They exist, they’re out there. It’s not what i want though.

                  And to be clear, calling the harris campaign right leaning is only feeding more into republicans who think all democrats are communist pigs vying for power over other people.