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Media Bias [Merged]

The Rebel is getting absolutely hammered the last week. It looks pretty good on them. I think they'll weather, but it's pretty frigging interesting to see it play.

Ezra wants you to help him fight back against the evil out there ::) https://www.therebel.media/stand-with-the-rebel and to show how serious old Ezra is, he's finally going to lift the flap on the Rebel's finances (maybe)

Interesting Ezra's range of tact the last while. You know, not knowing what the Alt-Right was all about and stuff  :-X

Schaudenfreude, indeed.
 
Scott said:
The Rebel is getting absolutely hammered the last week. It looks pretty good on them. I think they'll weather, but it's pretty frigging interesting to see it play.

Ezra wants you to help him fight back against the evil out there ::) https://www.therebel.media/stand-with-the-rebel and to show how serious old Ezra is, he's finally going to lift the flap on the Rebel's finances (maybe)

Interesting Ezra's range of tact the last while. You know, not knowing what the Alt-Right was all about and stuff  :-X

Schaudenfreude, indeed.

Well, if I was ever looking for a job...maybe not.  It would be interesting to work there, but I don't think I could reasonably work for an organization that has a completely different belief system from my own.
 
Scott said:
The Rebel is getting absolutely hammered the last week. It looks pretty good on them. I think they'll weather, but it's pretty frigging interesting to see it play.

Ezra wants you to help him fight back against the evil out there ::) https://www.therebel.media/stand-with-the-rebel and to show how serious old Ezra is, he's finally going to lift the flap on the Rebel's finances (maybe)

Interesting Ezra's range of tact the last while. You know, not knowing what the Alt-Right was all about and stuff  :-X

Schaudenfreude, indeed.

I hope the Rebel remains open and active. I think they cover a lot of stories and topics that aren't politically correct and other people are afraid to talk about. Some of their stuff is really eye opening.

Their problem is that they also shoot themselves in the foot because they also post stupid material that looks like it's intent is to incite racism, anti-Muslim crap and shit to just get people riled up. They don't police their social media very well so hateful violent comments can be the norm. I think they took a big hit when they lost Lauren Southern.

Sadly media on all sides seems more about entertainment and supporting X political group than it is about reporting facts.
 
Jarnhamar said:
I hope the Rebel remains open and active. I think they cover a lot of stories and topics that aren't politically correct and other people are afraid to talk about. Some of their stuff is really eye opening.

Their problem is that they also shoot themselves in the foot because they also post stupid material that looks like it's intent is to incite racism, anti-Muslim crap and shit to just get people riled up. They don't police their social media very well so hateful violent comments can be the norm. I think they took a big hit when they lost Lauren Southern.

Sadly media on all sides seems more about entertainment and supporting X political group than it is about reporting facts.

They have also been caught flat out in lies. So they rail against the likes of the CBC for twisting news and then they do the same thing themselves.

The Rebel is not so much media, but a political advertiser. That in itself makes them even harder to take seriously.

I try to look at them as the whole broken clock can be right, but they continually do stupid things. Like Ezra claiming he didn't really know what Alt-Right was about? That was a laughable moment. And his hush money scheme for the Brits who were going to out some of his practices? And reading deeper into those "financial statements" they are pie charts anyone can do on Powerpoint, not audited statements.

If Ezra wants to be taken seriously then he should work to prove he should be taken seriously. I mean, is there a Conservative left that will speak to him?
 
The Rebel is nothing but a tabloid, and I don't mean in the printing format.

They may very well get a few good pieces out every once in awhile.  But by and large, their staff are mostly inexperienced wannabe journalists who would rather post a story with the intent of stirring the pot than to do the tiniest bit of fact checking or even asking if the other side has something to say.

I'm speaking from experience.

It's a shame, because there have been a few really hard working individuals that are willing to do the hard work to get into the nitty gritty that no one wants to talk about, but their work is overshadowed by Team Instant Gratification.
 
Team Post What Drums Up Max Donations.

Jesse Brown did a pretty good show this week on Ezra and The Rebel. it's worth a listen.
 
Scott said:
Jesse Brown did a pretty good show this week on Ezra and The Rebel.
Good to meet another Canadaland fan!  I don't always agree with everything there, but it's a cool "other voice".
 
Yup, big fan. In the same boat as you re: not always agreeing, but I agree more than I don't.

And the fact that he makes things very uncomfortable for Ezra is pretty rad in my books.
 
Interesting development, Rebel media is pre emptively seeking ways to eliminate their dependence of platforms like YouTube. Being deplatformed, having your platform demonetized (i.e. they play ads on your videos but you receive no revenue), preventing linking or playing on other sites is already a way of life for many conservatives and conservative channels on YouTube, so this seems entirely warranted:

The launch of The Rebel Media mobile app is only a few weeks away. Please help us crowd fund the final components of this long-awaited mobile app (and take us all one step closer to being free from Silicon Valley censors) by donating at TheyCantStopUs.com. Thank you!

Considering how Sun TV was deplatformed by tilting the playing field against it (every news channel was included in basic cable packages except Sun TV, and the CRTC would not relent either place Sun on basic cable, or force other news channels to be put on specialty packages), Ezra has reason to be concerned.
 
ModlrMike said:
Looks like the battle lines are being drawn early:

TAGHVA: Union representing Canadian journalists declares itself the resistance to Andrew Scheer

Can the mainstream media be trusted when the union representing them actively declares its opposition to a party not even in power?

Context?  It is always helpful to drill down to some basic numbers to see if this is worth more than a yawn.

from the linked article
. . . the post opens up a serious can of worms as Unifor represents over 13,000 Canadian journalists.

For years many have argued that Canada’s mainstream press maintain a centre-left bias, this post only goes to further that sentiment in a dangerous way.

From Unifor's site
Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector union, with more than 315,000 members across the country, working in every major sector of the Canadian economy.

So a little over 4% of the union membership is driving the agenda or is it that the union leadership is mandating the work output of those "13,000 journalists"?  But the one journalist that the article's writer quoted did not appear to be a union parrot, and even though he is a member of that profession employed by the mainstream media (sorta, it is Global after all), he is well respected (even on these means where he has occasionally participated) for his independence of thought.  Surely, he can't be the only one.

And are all those 13,000 union members actually "journalists" (you know, guys and gals who write the news or opinion pieces that fill the spaces between advertisements) or does it include a large number of the minions who do many of the other administrative and technical jobs that are required in a news organization.  I wasn't able to find the number of individuals who identified themselves as journalists in the last census (I am not happy with the "new look and feel" of the StatsCan pages) but in one dated article (from 2013) the writer quoted a figure of just over 13,000.  Are all journalists in Canada represented by this one union?  Unlikely, since the majority of those at the bête noire of leftist Canadian MSM, the CBC, are represented by a competing union.

So,  :boring:
 
Hmmm. Well, you will likely see paid internships for online “journalism”, for outlets such as Rabble, Vice and the CCPA. The payor is Unifor or OPSEU, but the employer is the respective journalistic entity. I will grab some pics tomorrow from the student job board. But on the whole, when has the media not played the role of official opposition?

“Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” Joseph Pulitzer. This was a man with no time for fools or conspiracy theories. The quote is on the wall at the entrance to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, an institution which for many years, and probably even more so today, has no genuine or worthy Canadian peer.

How far the media has wandered off from  “Able, disinterested, public spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it..”  is anybody’s guess. And what would be the categories of metrics when truth is disposable or inconvenient. Did Pulitzer capture those metrics, because if he did, then the level of “resistance” surely is not one of them.
 
Furniture said:
Hard to see how the government didn't see the bad optics in this.

The bad optics will be quickly overshadowed by the constant stream of positively spun Liberal slanted "news".
 
Furniture said:
I'm guessing that they saw the optics, weighed the pros & cons, and decided that a potentially beholden press was worth the effort given any public outcry would soon fade to typical Canadian disinterest.

I thought that the opinion piece was well written, but then (probably because I guess my coffee hadn't yet kicked in  ::) ), I clicked on the comments.  The first one I saw triggered flashbacks:
This is Hitler 2.0, the Groper and his Gestapo run by Butts the Nazi are a serious threat to Canadian taxpayers in all aspects of their lives.

The Lieberal Propoganda Machine is druelling over the impending control and muzzle the Groper is going to impose on media outlets.

It's unacceptable, get rid of the madman and his lemmings, make this an election issue and fire that nutcase in 2019.
      :stars:
 
Journeyman,

The reaction in the comments section that you highlighted is exactly the problem with this "bright" idea.

For the full on loonies, this destroys whatever credibility the Canadian media once had. Welcome the full blown, post fact Trumpites to Canada.

Even for more reasoned and thoughtful folks, it has now got to plant at least a seed of doubt in peoples minds that any news coverage the Liberals get from here on out is tainted. Even I wonder how the Conservatives can possibly get a fair shake, now. Even sub-conciously, if you are a reporter or editor in Canada and the difference between having a job or not having one is this program, how hard are you going to try to dig up dirt on the Liberals?

This is precisely why governments should have nothing...NOTHING...to do with media, beyond holding press conferences amd giving interviews. Ever.
 
SeaKingTacco said:
Journeyman,

The reaction in the comments section that you highlighted is exactly the problem with this "bright" idea.

For the full on loonies, this destroys whatever credibility the Canadian media once had. Welcome the full blown, post fact Trumpites to Canada.

Even for more reasoned and thoughtful folks, it has now got to plant at least a seed of doubt in peoples minds that any news coverage the Liberals get from here on out is tainted. Even I wonder how the Conservatives can possibly get a fair shake, now. Even sub-conciously, if you are a reporter or editor in Canada and the difference between having a job or not having one is this program, how hard are you going to try to dig up dirt on the Liberals?

This is precisely why governments should have nothing...NOTHING...to do with media, beyond holding press conferences amd giving interviews. Ever.

This is pretty much how things look to me as well.

After having spent some time immersed in the American media environment I was reassured by the appearance of a generally balanced news media in Canada, that wasn't obviously a shill for one side or the other. With the government now proposing to directly fund the news media that appearance goes out the window. Jokes about the Communist Broadcasting Corporation were amusing(kinda? not really...) because we had other independent media sources to balance any perceived CBC bias.
 
http://nationalpost.pressreader.com/national-post-latest-edition/20181214/textview

FOX NEWS FOR LEFT WINGERS - National Post - 14 Dec 18 - Lawrence Solomon
  If you are a progressive, listening to Hannity may make your head explode, Lawrence Solomon warns.

Ever wonder why Donald Trump hasn’t been impeached yet, given the mountains of evidence against him and all those convictions of his cronies? Maybe you were even surprised that he was elected president. And that the stock market immediately soared. And that manufacturing has come back to the United States. And that U.S. economic growth is again at levels many thought were a thing of the past.

Maybe you were also surprised that the Brits voted to exit the European Union, and that the citizens in other European countries are moving in the same direction. And that the Paris climate accord has led to the disaccord torching Paris streets. Maybe you’re wondering why peak oil never happened, and why you stopped hearing about all those Pacific islands that were going to be submerged by global warming.

If so, don’t blame yourself. Blame the mainstream media, which has misled you and so often left you clueless. But there is a way to recover your understanding of the world, so that current events don’t keep throwing you for a loop. The cure isn’t for everyone. But those who want to be in the know can take the medicine, strictly following instructions.

The medicine is called Fox News. If you are a progressive for whom a low dose is required, you must never watch Sean Hannity, certainly not in the first year, before you’ve developed antibodies. He’ll make your head explode. Also on the DO-NOT WATCH list are Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. If you do happen to stumble on one of them the only antidote is switching to Shepard Smith’s 3 p.m. ET show at the earliest opportunity (maybe even TiVo him for use in an emergency). Shep will restore your equilibrium with some of TV’s finest Trump bashing, familiarly in the guise of presenting impartial news, just like they do on other networks.

For a fair-and-balanced Fox experience, start with Martha MacCallum’s 7 p.m. weekday show, The Story. You’ll be hard-pressed to notice any scent of ideology in her thoughtful questioning of brilliant guests, including many of the best legal minds in Democratic circles such as Harvard University’s Alan Dershowitz and George Washington University’s Jonathan Turley. MacCallum has no rough edges, she’s thoroughly likable, thoroughly prepared and fearless in asking disarming questions that elicit unscripted answers from her guests.

Super-smart and super nice also describe Shannon Bream in her 11 p.m. show, Fox News @ Night, a mix of hard news and interviews, typically also of top legal minds of both parties. Bream, a lawyer and formerly Fox’s Supreme Court correspondent, is so unbelievably nice, in fact, that her guests and colleagues spontaneously gush, live onair, at her unbelievable niceness. Other shows that will impress left-leaners include Fox News Sunday, hosted by Chris Wallace, a tough interviewer whose pro-Democrat biases rarely show, and Bret Baier’s weekday 6 p.m. Special Report, which provides straight news and balanced analysis. Unlike hosts on other networks, who can be counted on to downplay or altogether ignore news embarrassing to Democrats, the poker-faced Baier provides no such cover for wrongdoers of either party.

Fox News provides opposing perspectives, often articulated by their most accomplished advocates in head-to-head debates, letting you judge for yourself whose arguments best stand up to scrutiny. Satisfyingly, these exchanges, and other interviews involving politics and law, also provide the civics lessons that schools today neglect. Crystal-clear explanations from the likes of passionate civil libertarians like Dershowitz are a treat to imbibe. With so much of the news these days involving complex process issues — the Mueller investigation into Trump’s suspected Russian collusion, the Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearing, the rights of migrants to obtain refugee status — the need to understand the rule of law becomes paramount. By meeting that need, Fox makes its viewers smarter.

Because all viewers — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — feel empowered when they “get it,” Fox attracts viewers across the ideological spectrum, with the proportion of Democrat and Independent viewers outnumbering its Republican viewers and the Fox audience sometimes exceeding that of CNN and MSNBC combined. There’s a danger for those on the left who watch Fox, however: They may not stay on the left. According to a study last year in the American Economic Review, watching Fox News as little as an additional 2.5 minutes a week will make someone likelier to vote Republican, while watching MSNBC for that amount of time has negligible effect. The study further found that Fox News has been responsible for an increasing share of the Republican vote: “Our estimates imply increasing effects of FNC (Fox News Channel) on the Republican vote share in presidential elections over time, from 0.46 points in 2000 to 6.34 points in 2008.” That suggests that without Fox News, John Kerry would have obtained more votes than George W. Bush in the 2004 election and Barack Obama’s 53-46 per cent win over John McCain in 2008 would have looked more like a 60-40 landslide.

The existential question for those who lean left then becomes, “Is becoming knowledgeable on the issues worth the risk that I will lose my identification as a progressive?” In this era of identity politics, the answer won’t be obvious.

NEVER WATCH SEAN HANNITY, CERTAINLY NOT BEFORE YOU’VE DEVELOPED ANTIBODIES.
 
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