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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30380 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023

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The media used to reasonably critical of power, now they are basically reporting their press releases. Scandinavian journalists have barely any knowledge of foreign affairs, they report what the US military industrial complex reports. The perspective is becoming the perspective of Robert Kagan, often with perspectives that don't even make sense for a non-American. Even our public service media is increasingly ending its articles with "according to the Institute for the Study of War".

You ever seen an explanation of what's the reason for it ?

Internet killing press media, collapsing budgets, leading to talent leaving the profession?

Generational change, with spooks being better positioned now to groom younger generations of journalists properly ?

Race to the bottom. It’s faster and cheaper to copy a press release than to write an editorial. And once someone does that, switching costs are so low that they will snag all the viewers. So everyone else has to compete on similar terms.

Probably the internet killing their budget. Just rewriting a press release is cheap.

The "trusting the experts" narrative might have a role to play here. ISW succeeded in becoming "the experts" in many circles in the early months of the war. A more critical appraisal might go against the consensus of the "experts".

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