omg this is disgusting.
We’re turning into Japan.
Yeah, 99% of journalists have relationships so tight with the people they interview that the stuff that ends up printed is the result of COLLABORATION —the subject can specify what is printed in great detail. It’s usually unclear who is really writing the story, i.e. the story is more or less orchestrated by a public employee.
Not only that but journalists from different publications can meet later and coordinate what is printed in order to safeguard “press stability”. Yeah, that means across publications the content ends up almost completely THE SAME.
It’s a type of PRESS CARTEL. Can you imagine the WaPo calling up the NYT and contemplating if they should break their scoop..?
That’s why scandals when broken in Japan are always broken the the “illegitimate publications” —the J equivalents of The Star, etc, publications that end up with “Alien Space Baby Found in Watermelon” type stuff.
It appears WE ARE HEADED THERE.
There are a million great things about Japan, but prevalent patterns in mass media ARE NOT ONE OF THEM
Let me add here that there was ZERO press censorship in Japan during WW2 —it was ALL the product of informal pressure.
You can pull that off easily when it’s unclear where Da Gummint stops and where the media begins, see..?
In fact censorship of that unusual type is MUCH more intractable cuz it’s not WRITTEN DOWN; the tools to get it stopped DO NOT EXIST.
That means the whole Societal Train can run off the tracks much later, at a much higher speed, with much deadlier effects.
Like (you probably won’t believe this) guys can get into Nanking Beheading Competitions and nobody will stop them.