CNN treats politics like sports — and it’s making us all dumber
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as an example of how cable news turns politics into sports-style controversy, not recommended much as a watch.
What it is
A Vox Strikethrough video arguing that CNN models its political coverage on sports shows like First Take, pitting pundits against each other. It claims this favors drama over truth and degrades public understanding.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2017 to 2017.
What Hacker News said
Cites DiThi · 2017-04 · on “We Just Breached the 410 PPM Threshold for CO2”
> What is the point of this statement? I think he means that it's not spying or infiltration when the data is already there for everyone to see. It's about influence on one area that will affect the whole human species, not just one country, and people (esp politicians) are still very misinformed about the issue. It's about informing everyone, just the opposite of spying. > am I participating honestly in the political process? You make it sound bad, but it's a much better proposition than what it is actually happening: People don't discuss politics, they fight it. It's not treated as a complex set of opinions that have to be reasoned over, but as a sport teams [0]. Furthermore, the way the v
Cites asabjorn · 2017-11 · on “Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will”
Much of our news media is currently designed to be sports-like, so if your goal is to be informed then this strategy is very wise. To make news more sports-like news channels like CNN offer generous pay to people that are willing to spout controversial cartoonish opinions on national news as explained here: [this video] It is very questionable if these controversial opinions are representative of anything except an antagonistic "other" that is similar to who we want our opposing political side to be, so that we don't have to actually spend the effort to speak together and find common ground. Generous pay would probably not be necessary if anything else was the case. This way of avoiding civic dis
Critical pas · 2017-06 · on “Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax”
Well, yes, if you watch "news". [LINK] [this video] But there are real issues voted on. And even if there's no clear path forward, it's important to not go backward! > It's just "You are bad. No, YOU are bad" And? It's how ideas are criticized - ideally, by pointing out the errors in them. If someone uses ad hominem arguments, maybe try to find better people to listen to? (Economists, sociologists, policy scholars?) > And the electoral system doesn't allow anyone with new ideas to come up. Then don't spend time on those things, spend time on election reform, look at where those are, look at interesting things that matter and that help predict the world. [LINK] [LINK] So, the debate is what you ma