Fox News isn't the only one on a downward spiral, most mainstream news is suffering loss of following too. We've been reading about this for months if not years; online advertising revenue soaring past that for TV, millenials cutting cable subscriptions, most in the US tracking news on mobile devices... I thought this was a consequence of accessibility, convenience, cost, maybe a preference for self-confirming bias. Could it be the effects of "fake news"?
Yesterday, while I waited hours in an emergency room waiting room I saw some CNN documentary on Flynn. Audio was off, but I could see video of the General in his uniform testifying in Congress, standing beside Trump, waving, striding through the corridors of power and speaking from lecterns. They were interviewing academic consulltants about "Flynnfacts" and recounting examples from his role in Iraq, claims of Arabic markings giving directions found near the Texas border, routing of daesh, civilian casualties from US intervention, there was video relating to all of this and ambassador Kislak, that Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower, of Obama meeting with Trump, of Comey and Mueller, Putin and Trump. From the scrolling captions it was evidently quite a critical piece, but there was no "news", this was some sort of documentary (an "investigative reporting" piece). There's been no news on Flynn besides that he plead guilty to false statements to the FBI (and plenty of speculation on what Mueller will get him to admit about the dealings of Trump's team with Russia's Putin).
Most of the news I have from CNN concerns critical reporting from conservative sources denouncing CNN's misrepresentations: CNN said Comey would deny he had assured Trump 3 times that he was not under FBI investigation; they published, deleted, and then retracted and apologized for an article that claimed Trump adviser Scaramucci was the subject of a Senate investigation for his ties to Russian bankers; they cited a study from the Oxford Internet Institute, to show that fake news targeted swing states during election week, but the study was on “junk news,” not “fake news,” and included conservative outlets like the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News in their definition of “fake news”; they showed Trump impatiently dumping fish food in a koi pond during his Japan visit, when he was just following Abe's lead; they quoted an excerpt of Trump speaking in Japan to imply he didn't even know they made cars in the US; last Friday CNN told us Trump Jr. and the Trump campaign had received advanced access to stolen emails published by WikiLeaks (the email was dated after the Wikileaks publication). When they tell us Mueller has subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for Trump's personal banking records and the bank denies this, what do you think?
I wonder about a couple of things; do just the followers of conservative media realize CNN and other mainstream media are inaccurately reporting, and do those who follow the news from sources like CNN regard conservative sources like conservatives see CNN?
It could be there are two "alternative realities" in the US; a liberal "reality" with a misogynistic, racist, corrupt, traitor elected president (with Russian help) by ignorant and duped deplorables, and a conservative "reality" with a "deep state" establishment in cahoots with a liberal media with concocted stories resisting a natural leader fighting successfully to restore the country.
Necro'd thread closed.