I have always felt that freedom of press was one of the most fundamental aspects of a working democracy. Without a free press, you cannot have proper checks and balances. Unfortunately, while press is still ‘free’, actual unbiased news gets only a small fraction of the viewership. Mainstream ‘news’ is nearly completely opinion driven, and profit is the incentive rather than the dissemination of information. The free press no longer serves its necessary function, there is no accountability, and democracy is at risk.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 31 points 5 months ago (3 children)

We no longer have free press, not to any meaningful degree:

European version:

Given that the freedom of press is a requirement for a healthy democracy, and corporations owning all of these subsidiaries prevents that, I think it is well past time that we ban corporations from owning subsidiary companies.

[–] schlump@feddit.de 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Looking at the European version, I don't see any of the big serious journalistic outlets. Most of what's in there are just tabloids or lifestyle magazines. And even if a newspaper is part of a big conglomerate, doesn't mean that they are not free

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Here's one for France:

It shows national and big local newspapers.

[–] schlump@feddit.de 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Idk if it's my lemmy client, but I can't read most of the text in the image, because it's too low res

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 1 points 5 months ago

Try https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/PPA

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

And even if a newspaper is part of a big conglomerate, doesn’t mean that they are not free

Sure it does. If the CEO of a news organization doesn't want something published, it doesn't get published. That's why you never see articles on the Washington post that are critical of Bezos/Amazon/etc. And so when you get huge swaths of the media controlled by just a few people, it is no longer free.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

I note a lack of NPR in the us version.... also seems like conspiracy bullshit.

[–] Liz@midwest.social 5 points 5 months ago

At the very least, every product should be explicitly labeled as produced by the top parent company, right next to the actual name of the product.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Disney ate 21st Century Fox, so it's even worse now.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 months ago

Yes, a functional democracy requires that users have real political agency to engage with political topics, and that requires a high bar for individual liberty including press and academic freedom. A ton of people here will try to argue an absurd absolutist case that freedoms don't matter because all governments engage in some curtailment of freedom, and that this all therefore reduces to preference.

The reality is that neither governments or institutions outside of government are perfect. Perfection is a vision which guides institutions, not a real endpoint. That's why you should always be very critical of anyone who is quick to engage in criticism of your institutions, but is unwilling to engage in criticism of their own. This is the surest sign that someone is not acting in good faith, be it in real life, or on a notoriously sensitive meme community.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What about public radio, NPR? Of all the crap news out there, the reports I get off NPR are usually well balanced

[–] UmeU@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So yea, I hear you. I pretty much exclusively listen to NPR for news, and they are pretty balanced if not potentially a little left leaning from time to time, which I actually find refreshing.

But when a measurable percentage of the country thinks fox is fair and balanced, or that FB is a news source, the ability for our free press to safeguard democracy is severely threatened.

What good is free press when there are no longer facts and everything is opinion based?

Paraphrasing Asimov, ‘There is a cult of ignorance which operates under the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is as good as your knowledge.’

When trump took a play straight out of the dictators handbook and started shouting fake news, I began to fear that this was the beginning of the end. The real beginning however was probably a few decades back when news went from dry and factual to sensationalist infotainment.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

It's when CNN went to a 24hour news cycle and they had to fill that time with a bunch of talking heads spouting opinions.