this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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MeanwhileOnGrad
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I use my own understandings of the media.
MBFC has never done anything to establish that they are reliable and have little rigor to their methods. There's no reason to accept their analysis as having value.
They do have methodology, though :c
I read through it and it feels like a bit rubbish to be honest.
They themselves say that what they do only applies to US politics, so reporting on Israel and Palestine is out of scope in the first place. But their definition of bias is also weird.
What is even the "economic system" of a news outlet? What qualifies as "without bias" and "centrism"?
Perhaps it's more apt to say Western than the US, but it's still generally applicable. The part about the US is also relevant to the bias, not the factuality.
They explain the overall definition of bias inside the methodology, where they compare the different kinds of bias to make the final definition.
The economic system of a news outlet depends on whether that news outlet is public, private, or government. For example, the BBC doesn't need to worry about viewership or ad revenue because it gets its funding from the government.
You can view how they rate bias on each outlet's page. Neutral language and fact-based reporting are the key defining factors for their bias.
But if you don't want to use it, you don't have to.
That statement does not make sense, given the rubric is:
And even from a Western perspective, "centrism without bias" being right of a regulated market economy sounds like propaganda.
Especially since they use words wrong. Corporatism does not refer to "rule by corporations", but "rule by incorporated elements like trade and industry unions, and collective bargaining". For reference, the Nordics are heavily corporatists. No minimum wage, but strong union presence. Are they radical right?
BTW the word they are looking for is corporatocracy, which is defined as a range between excessive corrupution of a state to totalitarian dictatorships, which is a radical right ideology adjacent to fascism.
I get what they are trying to do, which is to try and bridge the two mainstream US public's thought processes, but in most - arguably more free - countries, politics does not boil down to two parties, two narratives, two publics and two choices. I don't mind that they do what they do, but it makes zero sense to try and apply it to Israel and Gaza, which itself has more than two competing narratives, which such a binary is too basic to cover.
The bigger problem is that it forces thought into a dichotomy, which eliminates conversation and shuts down reason and understanding, and only lets tribalism and rage prevail.
Which means the clock is completely reset and they need to spend years establishing that this new methodology is actually effective. Until they have that there is only more reason to not utilize them as a source.
i don't think anything will convince you lol.
you don't gotta use it if you don't wanna! but i am curious what you think about the main topic at hand here, with tankies praising hamas and the massacres.
Why is the Financial Times of London seen as a high quality resource for finance and economics? Is it because lots of people use it or is it because they have over a century of high quality publication? It's the latter. MBFC has never had years upon years pf demonstrating they are a good resource and by resetting their methodology they have become momentarily less reliable.
I think the pro-Israel side thinks this was started on 10/7/23 and the pro-Palestinian side recognizes that the war started in the 1940s and has never at any point in time stopped.
The Onion headline is months before the attack but I think is the best version of how the conflict should be framed
"10 Palestinians Dead After Israeli Raid,’ Reads Headline That Could Have Run Any Week For Past 75 Years"
https://theonion.com/10-palestinians-dead-after-israeli-raid-reads-headli-1850145998/
I think you shouldn't make any blanket statements.
But you're skirting the question. You're ignoring the Tankies, Hamas and celebration of the massacres. That is the key topic here.
I think it is safe to make blanket statements and I believe the rest of my post makes my position clear.
I don’t think this post belongs here as this war isn’t as cut and dry as people would like and all sides are inherently dishonest regarding all aspects of the conflict.
No apologia