• supernicepojo@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I watched these articles appear in real time streaming Angry Cops live on Yt. There should be some way to prevent such speculative, incendiary, exploitative, under-produced garbage reporting. There was no way that anyone, especially the press had any idea what was going on and just chose to use fear to scare people into clicks. Why can’t we have a truth in reporting legislation where this national enquirer level crap cannot happen without the larger company thinking about their bottom line? Just make them give all their money they made from ads on that bad journalism plus extra to the families they hurt with it.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      You know the answer. Because the lawmakers rising to power are beholden to the propaganda machine that got them there (and probably can blackmail them)

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        It’s simpler than that.

        Media companies are for-profit. Their boards and executive leadership are out to make money first, and be a media company second. These days, that means leaning into dopamine-generating sensationalist headlines that elicit strong emotional reactions from readers and viewers. It’s designed, like many other things in our hyper-consumerist society, to be addictive. The truth is often a causality in that dynamic.