[AAABEST]

Lately, however, it has come under criticism for what some see as a left/liberal bias.

Lately? So this author just recently arrived on the planet?

[jazusamo]

Off the Wall Ping!

Contact to be added.

[PGalt]

HOORAY JW, Fitton and all who work there.

(ping)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Just more evidence that altho the press is free of the government, the government is not free of the press. And it should not rightfully be. The trouble is that the press has self-organized into a cartel under the aegis of the continuous virtual meetings which are the wire services generally, and the AP in particular. For the government to be under the thumb of a unitary press is no different from the press being under the thumb of the government. Because, all protestations to the contrary, journalism is about bad news and not about the public interest.

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)

[jazusamo]

MAGA!

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[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The Associated Press, founded in 1846 as a cooperative association of newspapers

IOW, a mechanism whereby newspapers collude

has enjoyed a reputation for independence and fairness over the years

which its propaganda power has enabled it to co-opt by claiming that “journalists are objective.”

Since objectivity is a laudable goal but not a state of being, and is a difficult discipline and not something that can be readily validated, “journalists are objective” functions not only as a marketing tool for journalism but also as an incentive towards herd behavior by journalists. Its effect on journalists is to incentivize them to “go along and get along” with each other. If they all agree, who is going to be able to effectively challenge the objectivity of any one of them?

The freedom of the press assures that anyone who wants to be a journalist has the legal right to do so. But if anyone claiming to be a journalist challenges the objectivity of a member of the journalism cartel, all other members of the cartel feel duty bound to declare that the challenger is “not a journalist, not objective.” Thus, the cartel has transformed the meaning of “objective” from the dictionary definition to, “going along as a member of the journalism cartel herd.”

By that same mechanism, the journalism cartel has systematically transformed the meanings of all virtues in the same way. “Liberal” is a political virtue in the sense that a century ago it was the accepted label for people who are now called, in America at least, “conservative.” But by 1930 the meaning of “liberal” was essentially inverted (source: Safire’s New Political Dictionary). Not only did socialists begin flying under a false flag in that way, but the real liberals - again, those known as “conservative” today - were deprived of their virtuous label.

And much the same can be said of the terms “moderate,” “centrist,” “progressive,” etc. In real life there are no conservatives in America. In America, “conservatives” favor progress - progress of, by, and for the American people. Whereas “progressives” favor progress of, by, and for the government.