A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink
“I have to admit, I’m always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up,” the CIA agent says.
“Thank you,” the KGB says. “We do our best but truly, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them.”
The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. “Thank you friend, but you must be confused… There’s no propaganda in America.”
We had 3 TV stations, 3 sources of the nightly news. (Nightly news for national and world news, local paper for local news.)
The talking heads always said the same things. Sounds like state propaganda, doesn’t it? But the reality was that none of them wanted to show even a whiff of bias. The #1 metric of who one watched for their news was trust. Like Cronkite or Rather? Who do you trust? Bias was verboten, propaganda. LOL, after Watergate, journalists hunted politicians for sport.
Al Jazeera America started with the promise to report “just the facts ma’am”. Now I don’t know shit about their worldwide operations, I only saw the American version, and I was horrified. I realized I was so brainwashed on news-as-entertainment that reading their version was like watching grass grow. Hadn’t seen news reported as straight facts in so long I was bored shitless.
I have some experience. Edited my high school paper, not like that’s a big deal, but I had some solid journalistic training. Same in college. I can point to bias in any given article you care to show me. Not Al Jazeera, nada, no bias.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 day ago
A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink
“I have to admit, I’m always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up,” the CIA agent says.
“Thank you,” the KGB says. “We do our best but truly, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them.”
The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. “Thank you friend, but you must be confused… There’s no propaganda in America.”
shalafi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Love it!
Funny thing I was thinking on the drive to camp:
We had 3 TV stations, 3 sources of the nightly news. (Nightly news for national and world news, local paper for local news.)
The talking heads always said the same things. Sounds like state propaganda, doesn’t it? But the reality was that none of them wanted to show even a whiff of bias. The #1 metric of who one watched for their news was trust. Like Cronkite or Rather? Who do you trust? Bias was verboten, propaganda. LOL, after Watergate, journalists hunted politicians for sport.
Al Jazeera America started with the promise to report “just the facts ma’am”. Now I don’t know shit about their worldwide operations, I only saw the American version, and I was horrified. I realized I was so brainwashed on news-as-entertainment that reading their version was like watching grass grow. Hadn’t seen news reported as straight facts in so long I was bored shitless.
I have some experience. Edited my high school paper, not like that’s a big deal, but I had some solid journalistic training. Same in college. I can point to bias in any given article you care to show me. Not Al Jazeera, nada, no bias.
Predictably, they gave up within a year.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Can’t tell if this is sarcasm.