• Luc@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I’d be curious what country/ies the downvoters are from. This is also how I see it but nobody online ever agrees. I suspect it’s a culture thing: most people online aren’t from the Netherlands and I can’t say if this type of news also exists abroad (Tagesschau seems okay but I haven’t looked at it in detail or talked with enough germans about it to say that with any confidence whatsoever, and I’ve got even less info on other countries)

    In NL we of course also have some loonies who call the general news channels leftist propaganda, but overall I don’t have the impression that places like NOS spin things one way or another. It’s also government-funded which, going by the banners google now shows on publicly-funded youtube channels, probably means American readers of this message think I’m completely brainwashed by my government? Who knows, but then I’d be curious to hear what types of things they ever represented counterfactually

    • Schmoo@startrek.website
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      4 days ago

      You can be completely factual and still biased by the language you use and what you choose to focus on. Publicly-funded media is great and all, but that’s because its bias is obvious and upfront, not because it is unbiased. Attempting to be purely objective leads either to a status quo bias or a “centrist” bias where multiple extremes are presented as being equally valid.

      • Luc@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Publicly-funded media is great and all, but that’s because its bias is obvious and upfront, not because it is unbiased.

        And here I again wonder where your from to have such a mindset

        These people aren’t politicians…

        a “centrist” bias where multiple extremes are presented as being equally valid.

        You’ve not seen Dutch news. They don’t talk about hate speech as an equally valid option to our constitution the way that you’d expect with the current voting patterns and government composition if your statement were true. This uninformed opinion on what news can and must be, without having seen anything but english-cultural standards it sounds like, is what I mean…

        • Schmoo@startrek.website
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          2 days ago

          And here I again wonder where your from to have such a mindset

          Why does it matter?

          These people aren’t politicians…

          That does not make them a purely objective and neutral third party, particularly when they are funded/employed by a state.

          You’ve not seen Dutch news. They don’t talk about hate speech as an equally valid option to our constitution the way that you’d expect with the current voting patterns and government composition if your statement were true.

          I presented two different examples of how they can be biased; you have ruled out the latter and not the former. I don’t even need to have seen Dutch news because you have actually expressed their percieved bias yourself, though you don’t realize it. Supporting the validity of the constitution of their state government is a bias, regardless of whether or not you believe that to be a good thing. This is the status quo bias I mentioned.

          I think you perceive the word bias to have a negative connotation, but it is actually a neutral term. A bias in favor of human rights, for example, is IMO a good thing.