Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

“Overall it’s not clear what you have added here.“

This isn’t pretentious snark. It’s an expression of surprise, and feedback that you really don’t seem to be making a clear point.

You reduced my original comment to “everyone is biased, this is not a deep insight”.

I thought you might have something deeper to add, so I was surprised not to see it.

“It's true in the sense that you cannot impugn a particular part of the spectrum for the actions of individuals because there is no way to reliably quantify dishonesty much less attribute its distribution across a poorly defined political continuum.”

This seems like a re-statement of the original comment I made in response to the post about FOX. I guess we agree about that.

It continues not to be clear what you are trying to add.




> It really isn’t just Fox. They don’t have a lot of shame about their partisanship or desire to hide it, but there is ideological distortion going on everywhere.

Yes, we agree on this point, what I'm critiquing is your injection of this obvious fact into a discussion about a specific event that can be attributed to the particular type of misinformation spread by FOX, the fact that "there is ideological distortion going on everywhere" is beside the point, obviously that's true, so what? If an oil spill dumps millions of barrels into the ocean and someone exclaims "wow, these oil spills are really destroying the environment" your response is akin to "yes, but pollution is a global problem that includes more than just oil spills", yes, nobody is arguing otherwise, so what's your point?


“A specific event that can be attributed to the particular type of misinformation spread by FOX”

So really you are just saying this was caused by FOX.

You could have just said that.

In my view our political environment is much more complex than that and involves a pattern of escalations which can’t be so reductively disentangled.

I accept that you disagree with this.

When the NYT misrepresents something, for example, it contributes to the narrative of distortion just as much as when FOX openly claims there is distortion.

FOX news as far as I am aware has maintained that there is no evidence of election fraud, and called the election for Biden very early, so it’s not clear how you attribute this event to them. I don’t watch it, so I could be wrong about this, but it wouldn’t change the point.

The problem is not so easily attributable to a particular media outlet.

I wish it were that easy.


> So really you are just saying this was caused by FOX

Read more closely, that's not what I said.

> a specific event that can be attributed to the particular type of misinformation spread by FOX

So no, I didn't say this was caused by FOX.


You said it was attributed to the particular type of misinformation spread by FOX.

That sounds like you are saying FOX is a cause, although perhaps not the only cause.

If you don’t want it to sound like that, why not explain what ‘particular type’ of misinformation you think the event is attributable to?


The misinformation that the election was stolen, despite the courts having determined that this was not the case.


It seems like you have been misinformed or just made a faulty assumption.

FOX is now regarded as a traitorous part of the MSM by Trump supporters because they didn’t push that narrative.

Newsmax is the channel that has been pushing it as if it is true.

FOX has been reporting that there is no evidence that the election was stolen.


It seems like you have been misinformed or just made a faulty assumption. It just so happens that I am daily Fox News watcher and they have indeed been perpetuating the election fraud lies, they have walked it back after facing legal threats just like Newsmax and OAN, but they were still complicit in the lies.


“It seems like you have been misinformed or just made a faulty assumption.“

Possibly. I follow occasional links to fox, have done some searches and also read reporting about FOX.

I don’t watch it every day because I find it unbearable, as I do CNN and really any TV news.

Can you link to a piece where they report that the election was stolen?

Every news outlet is reporting on people who claim it was stolen, but that is not the same as claiming it themselves.

Here is a nice piece which explains why our current crisis can’t so easily be reduced to a particular piece of rhetoric.

Of course Trump is the proximate cause, and nothing justifies his lies about the election, but there is a lot more going on than that.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/american-cr...




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: