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Many Americans just want help. They neither understand the politics of it nor have any desire to do so. They don't read the news the way we do - I mean, I'm obsessed with news to the point where I don't read for pleasure anymore. However, I think most Americans are not that way at all. All they see is that they need help and no one is helping them. Washington is the bogeyman because to a starving person, what's the difference between a Republican saying "I won't do anything" and a Democrat saying "What can I do." The starved person still gets nothing.

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Good pt and I totally agree....which makes it all the more important for the news coverage to be precise

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You went around the block to wind up at the same place Eric described - Americans don't know/understand politics because the media is failing its 4th estate duty: make the government accountable with accurate and honest coverage. And if the topic is complex, make it understandable! You want help? THIS is why you are not getting it. Our media has to stop being terrified of being called biased.

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The Corporate Controlled Conservative Press isn't terrified. It's been totally co-opted by the Republican 24/7 BS Machine.

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I believe the problem is not as simple as corporate control, although that is a factor. Far too many political journalists are, as NYU’s Jay Rosen has said, more concerned with being “savvy” than they are with giving the public the truth:

“In politics, our journalists believe, it is better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere, thoughtful or humane. Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.)

Savviness is that quality of being shrewd, practical, hyper-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political. And what is the truest mark of savviness? Winning, of course! Or knowing who the winners are…”

https://pressthink.org/2020/09/you-might-not-like-it-but-its-smart-politics/

A big part of being savvy is being above the fray and the both sides are equally bad approach is the way to achieve that lofty status. A lot of political journalists and pundits really do seem to have disdain for all politicians and their coverage shows it. Even worse they are intimidated, if not impressed, by the bully boys on the right especially when they are “winning” with their anti-democratic tactics.

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Jay Rosen - I like him a lot. He also thinks we're doomed.

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It’s more than this. Corporate ownership has created an economic incentive for “journalists” to become “stars”. You can see this directly on Fox, but also in how Dean Baquet is relentlessly promoted. It’s like Walter Cronkite and a corporate executive got Frankensteined together. Who is getting more out of the access journalism, who is the star and who is the star fucker.

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Including whoever owns the Republicans. The Media have made undermining democracy its mission. Its motives are more sinister than mere "clicks" and revenue dollars. They are willing accomplices of those forces that want to destroy democracy.

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No, not all of them. Some of them are not going to listen to your idea of a proper media because they don't care or they're bored by it. It doesn't interest them to learn it. They want to watch the game or the TV show and then go to sleep. However, they're still pissed off.

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