• nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    While the news has always been a for-profit industry, Citizens United turned election years into billion dollar windfalls for news outfits.

    I’m pretty sure that’s why USA Today owns almost all the local papers in my state. They can float the payrolls between election years, or cut a bunch of local reporters and send their own around following primaries in the state with the most campaign money each week.

    • maccentric@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I don’t believe the news was always for-profit. Early television news actually cost the station money and was provided as a service for the public good. Things took a turn for the worse sometime in the sixties, accelerating through the eighties and devolving into the shitshow we have today.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I don’t believe the news was always for-profit.

        No it wasn’t, and it would referred to as the Fourth Estate.

        • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 months ago

          Look at the history of newspapers. They started a war at one point to sell more papers. Which is how the term yellow journalism was coined.

          It’s true that the fairness doctrine made broadcast news better for the period when they were losing money, right up to about when Kennedy was assassinated, but that’s been long gone for decades, and only really helped radio and OTA TV.

          • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            It’s true that the fairness doctrine made broadcast news better

            My comment that you replied to was related just to broadcast news, and not newspapers. The Big Three.