Do we have a free press?
I was a Palestine protestor at my college encampment. When I tell you that I lost so much faith in journalism after the lies they printed about us, I want you to take my full meaning. For persec reasons, I won’t say where or what they printed. But I remember camp being equal parts hopeful and defiant, and angry and resolute. I was one of the few with any real camping experience, so my self-assigned task was repairing tents and reviewing sleeping accommodations to make sure no one was cold or sleeping poorly. What the press made it look like was ‘group of absolutely clinically loony college kids invite hoards of homeless bums to their college and start trashing everything in sight under guise of protest’.
Without fail, it was recognizable and ‘reputable’ news orgs that were printing bald-faced outright lies about us. A few of the journalists I interacted with expressed… regret. Despair. Only one I met seemed happy to be there. The rest, the look on their faces made it feel like they were at our funeral. The ones that printed the truth? A local headshop magazine that usually covered what strains of cannabis were popular, and Unicorn Riot. The offbeat weirdos or dedicated ideologues.
It was so jarring to see a profession I regarded so highly eviscerating the truth. I’ve lost all faith in corporate media, and I will never get it back.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 12 hours ago
OK so it depends on what you mean by free press. I meant you can report the truth and that (usually) won’t get you arrested. I did not mean the mainstream press is always fair or honest.
There’s been a huge growth of independent journalists that give far more accurate accounts of leftist perspectives in protests, etc. Though you have to be careful because there’s plenty of dishonest independent journalists too. But if you have good media literacy and fact checking ability the information is still out there. As opposed to places where if you speak certain facts aloud you may be arrested.
GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Comparing the audience garnered by corporate media vs unethical independent media vs ethical independent media, America functionally does not actually have a free press. Take it from someone who had to stare down the barrel of a camera and get blasted on live TV for doing the right thing.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 2 hours ago
OK, I understand your position but again that’s not what I meant. I just meant the free dissemination of information is largely legal.