• Veraticus@lib.lgbt
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    It is silly to compare Voice of America (an excellent journalistic institution with a great reputation), to the Washington Post (overall pretty good), to Russia Times (literal state propaganda). These are all very different sources and painting them with the same brush is just factually incorrect.

    Here’s some research for you:

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/washington-post/

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/rt-news/

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/voice-of-america/

    As for your second point, Trump is still walking free and he tried to overthrow the government. These things apparently do happen.

    • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Voice of America was put under the command of the USIA (US Information Agency) whose job was literally propaganda.

      The US archives state the following:

      306.2 Records of the International Information Administration (Department of State) 1945-53

      History: Office of the Coordinator of Information established as an independent agency by Presidential order, July 11, 1941, to collect and analyze information bearing upon national security. Foreign Information Service established within OCOI to oversee shortwave propaganda broadcasts (Voice of America, VOA),

      https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/306.html

      I think that definitively proves you wrong.

      Will this make you do one ounce of self-criticism or re-evaluate how you view the world? I sincerely doubt it.

      • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Interesting find! There were also 48 states when that was written though, so we should probably take its current-day accuracy with a grain of salt.

        Indeed, the nature of VOA has changed over time. During the Cold War it served to bring accurate news to countries behind the Iron Curtain and fight Soviet propaganda. (The Soviet government jammed it during this time.) Obviously this mission has changed since then as well since the Soviet Union no longer exists.

        Ultimately its current reputation of journalistic objectivity does not depend on nearly century-old records but on what we can see today; dedicated journalists and accurate reporting.

        • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Ah yes the propaganda outlet started for the purposes of propaganda and staffed with people all doing the job of propaganda has surely not continued to employ people ideologically aligned with performing propaganda ever since! Nooooooo. Somewhere along the line must have fired every single member of staff and built a reputable new outlet from the top down. Surely!

          To quote a reagan fuckhead - “Personnel is policy”.

          Ultimately its current reputation of journalistic objectivity does not depend on nearly century-old records but on what we can see today; dedicated journalists and accurate reporting.

          You are not immune to propaganda. And you should seriously take a moment to read the shit you are writing and ask yourself how much of it is you repeating propaganda. You sound like you’re literally writing PR copy.

          • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I mean, France was once ruled by an Emperor; does that mean it still secretly is? Or did, like, something change in the last two hundred years in that regard? Do you think Napoleon is still secretly in charge there too?

            You’re right personnel is policy though. And if you did any research whatsoever instead of posting nonsense on the Internet, you’d see that the journalists who work at the VOA are actually journalists, not propagandists. It’s not hard, the facts are out there. Maybe you should pursue them instead of indulge in baseless conspiracy theories.

            But I’m easy to convince! Feel free to link me evidence that the VOA is still American propaganda and not real journalism. Surely reputable sources and good evidence are easy to find? I mean, if this was written a hundred years ago, there must be something else between then and now?

            • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              And if you did any research whatsoever

              Of the two of us I am the only one that has done any research at all. As I am the only one who bothered to see what language the US uses for its own media outlet.

              Your research consists of looking up propaganda sites that suit you, and parroting whatever they say regardless of any critical thought that might suggest they’re not reliable. You don’t think for yourself. At all. All you do is defer all of your thinking to these ““sources”” when they’re not primary sources and are literally obviously spouting easily falsifiable shit.

              • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                What research was that exactly? Watching a literal propaganda YouTube video and deciding it was the truth? You know that video was in English too, right? Doesn’t that mean it’s been compromised by the CIA?

                Anyway… you clearly just have no idea what you’re talking about and have no ability to discern fact from fiction. For crowing that I need to stop being propagandized, I’m the only one here that appears to have done anything even actual research and employing critical thought.

                Stop getting your information from YouTube. Duh.

                • CurseBunny@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  It seems like there’s no reason to doubt the US Archive’s internal records on this regard. You say surely things have changed, but there’s little in the way of compelling evidence that that’s the case, right? Propaganda doesn’t mean an absence of factual reporting, it means slanted, biased reporting, and it’s not exactly a stretch by any means to suggest that VOICE OF AMERICA might have an agenda in their reporting, right? Pretty much every country that disseminates its own media employs propaganda because it’s a proven means of control. I understand you respect the service they provide but consider the purpose of propaganda, its intended effect, and how it might be influencing your stance on this matter.

                  • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    0
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    There’s a ton of compelling evidence that VOA is not propaganda.

                    I linked a bunch of media bias and fact checkers earlier: in case you missed them, here they are again. So… yeah, it seems from the available evidence it has in fact changed in a hundred years.

                    Unless, of course, you think that every media fact checker is wrong. In which case, again, it must be easy to provide some kind of source or evidence that either they are, or that VOA is in fact merely propaganda.

    • Match!!@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      your source says the VOA is a US government official news arm, you don’t see how they might have a bias when reporting on Russia?

      • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        They might, but being state-run is actually no guarantee of bias! Some state-run media is certainly very biased (RT). Others less so (VOA). This might surprise you but you have to do things like “research” and “consider the source,” in addition to determining where its funding comes from.

        • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          “Actually being state-run is okay when our guys do it”

          Before you whine, let me add that RT is a rag, though every now and then it has a good article and sometimes covering things western outlets refuse to is a good thing (like the recent-ish stuff with Seymour Hersh), but to say that VoA isn’t notoriously propaganda or that BBC articles aren’t mostly rightwing drivel is unhinged neoliberal bullshit.

          (BBC does have some good TV programs, but those are fiction and documentaries, the news is awful)

          • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            “Actually being state-run is okay if those journalistic institutions can be independently verified to offer high-quality, objective reporting, based on nothing more than an analysis of that reporting – especially with regards to that institution’s stances of its government’s actions.”

            Not sure why this is so hard for you all. Like, actually, in order to determine if a news source is good, we have to – shockingly! – examine the output of that news source. By this metric, the VOA and BBC are pretty good… uh, single Tweets notwithstanding.

        • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          We’ll look at an example from another US state media outlet: Radio Free Asia

          In 2014, Radio Free Asia wrote a story claiming North Korean students were forced to get the Kim Jong Un haircut. The story spread like wildfire. It was on all the news stations, all the talk shows, Kimmel, Colbert, John Oliver. TV commercials riffed on it. The whole American media ecosystem was unanimous, everyone believed this shit. Regular people on the street could tell you about it.

          Then it came out that Radio Free Asia made it up. Someone at Radio Free Asia sat down and deliberately wrote a false story with the intent to deceive the public, and then Radio Free Asia published that story as fact in order to smear an enemy of the United States.

          Radio Free Asia, like VoA, has excellent scores on all the media bias and fact-checking sites. This is because they sprinkle their bullshit carefully. RFA’s hit pieces are mixed in among hundreds of ordinary, mundane, reputable current events stories. You go to the site and you see headlines like you might see on any other site. But when you go digging, you start to find dozens of unsourced claims about China and North Korea mixed in. The rest is just reputation laundering to support the bullshit.

          If you asked an intelligent person, “how would you publish propaganda,” RFA is the format they would come up with.

          • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            An interesting story!

            I briefly researched this and it looks like the initial version of the article (as described by the Washington Post) was indeed wrong. The Diplomat claims RFA updated the English translation of the article and made it more accurate:

            The instruction for male students to get the same haircut as their leader is not based on any directive from Kim but on a recommendation from the ruling Workers’ Party, according to a North Korean from North Hamgyong province near the border with China.

            So I’m not sure the takeaway is “someone sat down and wrote a bullshit story with the intent to deceive the public,” so much as “an article stub appears to have gotten into the wild and was corrected in translation.”

            Certainly it’s easier to believe RFA made an error and/or mispublication here than they’re just publishing propaganda, right? Unless we’re saying the standard for a US-backed media source is “zero errors, and any errors are intentional propaganda.”

            But let’s assume that’s true: they don’t make any errors and this is indeed propaganda. Why did they publish it? What would be the utility of false haircut propaganda, except to tip their hands that they are a propaganda outlet, which would certainly make its utility as a propaganda outlet worthless? Wouldn’t they want to get this story right so you believe the really big important stuff?

            If you asked an intelligent person, “how would you publish propaganda,” you’d just do it like Russia Times: just straight-up repeat the state’s lies and never bother reporting anything close to the truth. I think the multilayered conspiracy theories required for the assertion that institutions intentionally seed their stories with propaganda are difficult to swallow, and not particularly well-supported. Like there’s no evidence RFA intentionally lied here, at least none that I can find.

            Of course, I also think you should be cautious of media sources in general and it’s a fine idea to keep in mind who pays RFA’s bills. But the way to judge whether a place gets it right or wrong is to examine its history and accuracy; dismissing it outright because the US funds it is intellectually lazy.

            • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              They changed one unsourced claim to another unsourced claim. Neat.

              Why did they publish it?

              Because it vilifies an enemy state, which is convenient when you want public support for sanctions against that enemy

              If you asked an intelligent person, “how would you publish propaganda,” you’d just do it like Russian Times: just straight-up repeat the state’s lies and never bother reporting anything close to the truth.

              Are you serious? Is this really what you think?

              Could you explain why you think this?

              • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                1 year ago

                That claim includes a source.

                Because it vilifies an enemy state

                Uh, if they’re just going to publish total outright lies, why not just claim they eat babies or something equally horrific? Villifying the state via haircut shaming is certainly not how I’d go about it.

                Could you explain why you think this?

                Well yeah: it’s easier to do and gets the same results in the end.

                Journalists are actually people. Let’s assume that care about what they do and want to do it with integrity (as most of us seek to act). Convincing them to constantly lie and compromise their work for political reasons seems like a lot of work, and they’d just wind up quitting and writing scandalous tell-alls anyway. So why bother to begin with? It’d just cause drama and is frankly a dead-end for your goals in any event. Just hire a bunch of hatchet job propagandists whose explicit goal is lying. Then everyone’s happy and you’ve made your life much much easier.

                Of course, you miss out on “truthful articles” that fool people into believing you’re a good institution. But most people will see that you’re publishing intentional lies and have fired your good journalists anyway, so no one is going to believe you’re a reliable journalistic institution even if you cram in some incisive, hard-hitting truths. Again, it’s just a waste of time and effort; people who are smart enough to do the research will see through you in any case. So, just go straight for the propaganda.

                There are plenty of people (right here in this thread) who will falsely equivocate between your propaganda and actual journalism anyway, so it’s not like you’re even sacrificing that much.

                • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  That claim includes a source

                  Yeah, an anonymous source. Did you look at it?

                  Why not just claim they eat babies or something equally horrific?

                  They do publish many horrific claims.

                  gets the same results in the end

                  No it doesn’t. When your outlet is obvious propaganda, fewer people believe you. RFA’s sheen of reputability was a huge factor in the haircut story’s enormous reach in western media.

                  Hire a bunch of hatchet job propagandists

                  …the sort of people who would write this disproven haircut story and dozens of other goofy unsourced claims they’ve published, yes. You can even tell them to write normal stories too just to mix it up.

                  Convincing journalists to lie seems like a lot of work

                  Not if some or all of your journalists are US intelligence — Radio Free Asia began as a CIA front operation (google it), and might still be one.

                  • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Of course I looked. An anonymous source is actually fine, especially when reporting on a regime known for torturing sources.

                    You’re right that fewer people believe it; but again, it is obviously propaganda when it is and it’s not a secret. So again why bother with the fig leaf when no one will believe it anyway?

                    And certainly you have a source for your absurd conspiracy theory that the CIA actually runs RFA, right?

    • PorkrollPosadist@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      For the love of god, listen to some Citations Needed and stop self-congratilating your media literacy because some fucking dork with a website tells you the New York Times and Washington Post aren’t biased.

      • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think it’s hilarious people are telling me I need some nuance and research, when I’m the one arguing there are differences between these sources and we need to evaluate them individually. And the person I responded to is arguing they’re all the same because, well, Journalism Bad I guess!

        For the love of god read the comments before you reply.

        • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          And the person I responded to is arguing they’re all the same because, well, Journalism Bad I guess!

          If you only consider corporate media and western state-run and state-sponsored outlets to be purveyors of “Journalism,” then let me emphatically say yes, Journalism Bad.

        • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I think you’re just doubling down on your bad arguments with straw man fallacies now. Move on.

      • OrangeSlice@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’d thought that even the most liberal people on nü-Lemmy had at least read some Chomsky (or even watched the documentaries based on his work), but I guess we aren’t even there yet.

    • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      You don’t think critically about mediabiasfactcheck?

      Voice of America was created to promote American propaganda, it’s literally the US propaganda outlet. You’re a shill.

        • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I know it’s tough to believe, but government-funded things aren’t necessarily bad. To discover if they’re bad you have to do more research than seeing who funds them!

          It’s shocking I know.

            • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yes; have you? If you have you’d know they have a reputation basically everywhere for journalistic integrity, high objectivity, and high factuality.

              • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                You’re making this up. It’s known around the world for being US propaganda. Next you’ll be saying Stars and Stripes is highly objective.

                • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I’m literally the only one who hasn’t made shit up this thread because I’ve linked sources. Want some more?

                  Columbia Journalism Review writes in a rather incisive examination of its position as state-run media:

                  VOA earned credibility around the world on the basis of its honest journalism, even when its stories conflicted with US policy. “Some might argue that as a government-funded network, the voa should always be expected to portray US policies as righteous and successful,” wrote former VOA Director Sanford Ungar in Foreign Affairs in 2005. “But experience demonstrates that the VOA is most appreciated and effective when it functions as a model US-style news organization that presents a balanced view of domestic and international events, setting an example for how independent journalism can strengthen democracy.”

                  From the Dallas News:

                  As anyone who’s ever lived, worked or served overseas will tell you, the Voice of America (VOA) is an invaluable and highly respected source of news and reliable information in a world too often flooded with misinformation and propaganda.

                  Here’s some other bias checking websites.

                  So certainly you have some sources for your claim that it’s US propaganda, right? It’s based on more than just the name and you continually asserting it?

      • Lemminary@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I’ve never heard of this in history before. The whole thing smells.

        You don’t think critically about mediabiasfactcheck?

        😂😅

      • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I apparently think about it more critically than you do. All journalism is not propaganda; some is good in fact, and we can determine which is good and which is bad. And I at least have sources, whereas you have, uh… brain damage I guess?

        Also that’s a laughable and total misunderstanding of Voice of America’s history, mission, and goals. It has a reputation basically everywhere as being as close to objective and reliable reporting as you can get outside the BBC. I guess you’re just assuming it’s bad based on its name, which is not great on the critical thinking front!

        • SomeRandomWords@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t disagree with you about VOA not being 100% propaganda, but I think the thing that RT and VOA do share in common is that they are state-funded. With that being said, WaPo (just like the BBC) isn’t state funded so it’s still a poor comparison.

          • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            The BBC is quasi-state funded; its relationship with the government is not entirely cut-and-dry, since it is funded through a government act (though not directly by the UK itself).

            What matters is whether the state has controls that prevent it from interfering with its media sources, and whether those sources have missions respecting journalistic integrity. For the VOA and BBC this is entirely true, both have charters specifically mandating them to do that and their respective governments have very clear “hands-off” laws and policies (or did until Trump, the story does get a little complicated for the VOA recently).

            RT on the other hand just publishes Putin’s marketing emails.

          • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I concede it’s a stretched argument but WaPo is known for hiring ex-State Department/ex-CIA staff onto its editorial board. I’m too lazy to find source but say something that gets me riled up and I’ll find the source out of spite.

        • edward@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          and reliable reporting as you can get outside the BBC

          “Russian state owned media bad. British state owned media good.”

          I guess you’re just assuming it’s bad based on its name

          No, we know it’s bad because it’s literally run by the US government.

        • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Suggesting I have Brain Damage and then doubling down on your argument that VOA is as good as another state-owned media outlet that promotes its own nation with a history of imperialism, colonialism, and a bunch of other atrocities. I’m not sure if you think you’re convincing me or anyone beyond your echo chamber of anything or just like to read your own words as reaffirmation of your own beliefs. Either way it’s useless.

          • Lemminary@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            Cite reliable sources proving it’s “another state-owned media outlet that promotes its own nation” or at least give us a demostrable example.

              • Lemminary@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                1 year ago

                What about it? You can’t just link to a page with a thousand words on it and pretend that it all proves your point. Elaborate.

                • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Oh sorry, read the first paragraph on that page. You don’t need to read anything else. Usually when someone shares a link I read the first few sentences if there’s no further explanation.

                  • Concetta@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    0
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Voice of America (VOA) is the largest U.S. international broadcaster, providing news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of more than 326 million people. VOA produces content for digital, television, and radio platforms. It is easily accessed via your mobile phone and on social media. It is also distributed by satellite, cable, FM and MW, and is carried on a network of more than 3,500 affiliate stations.

                    That’s the first paragraph. What are you talking about?

      • Dr. Bluefall@toast.ooo
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        His supporters forced their way into the Capitol Building in order to keep him in office by throwing out the election results.

        If that ain’t an attempted coup, then what is?

        • Summzashi@lemmy.one
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Can you point out where I said it wasn’t? I’m just saying the severity of what happened in Russia is completely incomparable to what happened in the US. You’re talking about a fully armed military with sophisticated mechanized weapons and armor versus some Facebook rednecks with Trump flags.