(April 8, 2019 at 10:00 am)Cepheus Ace Wrote: these fake news facebook pages, youtube channels, blogs etc are popular because of the failings of mainstream media.
That's only a part of it. They're popular because they're convenient, nominally "free", and tell people exactly what they want to hear in a way they find entertaining. And widespread use of social media as the source of news, only makes the "mainstream" media worse - because for the past 20 years, or more their budgets have been shrinking, meaning: they've had to cut jobs - especially un-cool, specialist jobs, like science reporters - and have to rely more and more on paid promotion and sensationalist click-bait in order to compete for attention of the masses.
Yes, there is a problem with media. But burning it down won't solve it. And Trumps of the world would love nothing more, than for mainstream media to become irrelevant. Because even Trump can't shut down "failing NY Times", but a Youtube channel, or a Facebook account can be disappeared overnight, without as much as a warning.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
