Vicious Cycles: Theses on a philosophy of news (2020)

(harpers.org)

20 points | by eustoria 6 hours ago ago

7 comments

  • Peteragain 4 hours ago ago

    It's rambling, but highlights a point. The big picture IMHO is that news as we ingest it is like history. History is viewed through a lens of the present and its concerns. News is viewed through the same lens, filtered by the concerns of, not journalists, but what journalists think we are concerned with. Real journalists (IE investigative) don't present "facts", but interpret "facts" against a world view. Good journalists state how they do that. Just to put the cat out and see what happens, Michael Moore is definitive at this, irrespective of whether or not you agree with his world view, at least you know what his world view is. I've just had a piece of Reform UK advertising through the mailbox, and it is printed in the format and style of news. Nice trick. I guess that is what 70 million GBP of overseas funding buys you.

    • soperj 4 hours ago ago

      > Michael Moore is definitive at this

      Is he though?

      I thought it was pretty well known he's manipulated timelines, selectively edited interviews and staged things.

      He puts his world view first and makes the facts fit that view.

      • mentalgear an hour ago ago

        claims as these require sources .

  • ChrisArchitect an hour ago ago

    (January 2020) OP.

    Oh what little insight they had into how bad things were knowing what was to come.

  • motohagiography 2 hours ago ago

    i tune out when i see criticisms of opposing ideology because the very concept itself requires one.

    when you have an ideology, everything becomes an ideology, and this serves only to reinforce its own cycle of criticism. thinking in terms of ideologies is just a materialistic mind virus.

    the essential ingredient of news or a story is conflict, and "ideology" just synthesizes and manufactures conflict to hang the facts and events of the day on. This false, solipsistic foundation is why the news is garbage.

    im glad we have fun podcasts as a kind of replacement social fabric because they are based on sincere interest and desire, whereas the news was a system of braying, histrionic criticism in a permanent power struggle.

    the old news establishment were impostors, and a kakistocracy of compromised pretenders. I say good riddance to them.

    • UncleOxidant an hour ago ago

      > when you have an ideology, everything becomes an ideology

      Who doesn't have an ideology? Everyone has a framework through which they view the world. The trick is recognizing the ideological framework of the media which you are consuming.

      > im glad we have fun podcasts as a kind of replacement social fabric because they are based on sincere interest and desire

      I'm pretty sure that's not always true.

    • gyanchawdhary 2 hours ago ago

      very well said!