Post

Everybody's got a list of what they want Democrats to do if they get elected & they want their #1 item to be the Democrats' #1 & they want it done in one year or they will refuse to vote for them in the next election or even vote for Republicans. That's been the pattern for this century.

@karlbode.com , by the way, thank you! Most perfect timing. On yesterday's excellent HN submission of this lovely 2009 piece, I deeply enjoyed citing this incredible well reaearched piece you have! 🙇🙌 blog.jimgrey.net/2026/07/21/i... news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4899... What ruination they bring!

That will take a back seat to preserving the democracy by putting guard rail back in place.

They won’t. Democrats are fully bought in, too.

because thats more important than removing the orange stain from office

I guess the real question is with cord cutting, is the reach of the consolidation much more limited?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the Nexstar and Tegna merger was canceled by various state regulators nixing that deal?

In the meantime, I think it would really be worth someone like Mackenzie Scott (formerly Bezos) or Melinda French Gates to consider buying out completely entities like Sinclair in order to remove all of the GOP cancer and turn them back into legitimate broadcasting entities

Example: bsky.app/profile/wors...

I think that precisely that TV is a market in decline that it needs to be protected from Clearchannel style consolidation. Specially because it's a public service used during emergencies and natural disasters.

How do you prevent government-funded media from being a mouthpiece for authoritarianism, like how the BBC supports the transphobia of British governments?

Yeah, the public Öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk model in Germany, modeled after the BBC after WWII, is enviable. Not to say their dual public/private model is perfect, or that Germany doesn’t struggle with the same misinformation problems as the US.

If it’s funded by a political party, is it real journalism?

And that response is why you keep losing. You could stop sucking up to your enemies, the Democrats and start electing people who WILL do something. They tell you to fuck off, because they know you've been programmed to vote for them anyways

Welcome to the "fringe" you nutty conspiracy theorists

yes I only just started talking about this today

There must be rules that differentiate between actual news or opinion. If a show is less than 90% factual news it should lose the news label. News isn't right or left. It just is. And opinion should be equally balanced between right and left.

The speech was it for normal life in the USS Of A !

Fine, but AFTER packing/reforming the Supreme Court. Because until that happens, John Roberts and his cronies will strike down media reform, and any other Democratic proposal, as unconstitutional.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Liberals shd have done this decades ago. We're drowning in lies that gave us Trump as POTUS twice already. And, as you note, it's getting worse. bsky.app/profile/upin...

consolidated corporate media doesn't have a financial interest in reporting on the downsides of consolidated corporate media, curiously

Because so much of his money came from the same media companies we would limit and regulate.

Yeah, people are concerned about Fox, but outfits like Sinclair have been far more insidious.

We need to go after the right wing bastardized local news in the way that Republicans attack the "mainstream media."

Not if Americana, true Americans, have anything to say about it,

You'd have to be more specific

This also drives a stake through the heart of the cherished conservative notion that private ownership of the fifth estate is safe and acceptable.

TOTAL.. BUST UP CORPORATE MEDIA and make LAW.. so cant .. create PROPAGANDA .. of any persuasion.. period. ENFORCE ANTITRUST LAW and yes GUARDRAILS..

Is local TV news still relevant? Is this a big loss or small?

But there will still be Liberal Bias right? I mean, Liberal Bias is a highly cherished belief among Americans, a rare unpolarized common opinion, and a huge gift to Republicans for 50 years.

The Media, ALL media, must be reformed. We are in this mess because of their owners and because of the Cooperate Advertising choosing the GOP messaging!

Nip it in the bud! Solve the root cause!!

To be fair... neither side has done dick about media conglomerates buying affiliate after affiliate after affiliate. Both are TOTALLY complicit.

Truth. I was a chemical rep who traveled mostly by car through NY State,parts of PA, NJ and MD from the 80's - early 2000's. In every small , mid and big town on AM and FM ( pre satellite ) the vile con Rush Limbaugh was on. Could get him everywhere. RUSH helped get us here. A lying propagandist.

They are pretty much there already.

When was the last time you watched local news for anything but the weather or high school sports scores? It's a dead media landscape.

This is deadly.

@karlbode.com, i've always been able to reach your site until today. In Canada, no VPN. Now, using both Brave and Firefox browsers, no go. "DNS address could not be found." Ideas?

Begging won't work. Democrats respond only to bullying and bribes.

Stop watching television

Will this maybe be a problem that solves itself once the older generation dies out? No younger generation watches local broadcast tv anymore

it's a loop, right? functional journalism would protect us from the erosion of functional journalism.

And while leadership should be in that 20% of individuals that at least get what the stakes are, even if they don't fully understand, they fall most likely into the the mid-80% where they go "oh hey, maybe that's not great" but completely fail at the understanding of repercussions.

There's an infinitely long list of things that should have been done years ago, and that isn't even new. The planet itself is being destroyed by 10,000 cuts a day, and much of that damage is irreversible

By being exposed to news that you think is "unbiased" you're more likely to believe what's being said as it's a "trustworthy source". Yes, adult Dems are more likely to seek out news elsewhere but boomers, kids, and rural people are more likely to get information from local TV than any other source.

ivn.us/dnc-to-court...

I live near Vancouver BC. We just lost our local 24 hour news radio station. They were very good at hitting local bullet points as well as traffic and weather every 10 minutes. Our local newspapers are all being bought up by a right view corporation. Soon the TV will happen, I have no doubt.

Random Man blocked me for no reason other than my having questioned his assertion that the Fairness Doctrine would help fix today's media problems.

She has to have alerts set up for when it's mentioned.

And let's beg Democratic donors to start buying up/building a left-wing media ecosphere to counter this.

Unfortunately media concentration appears to have institutional bipartisan support

Northern California has already lost this battle. I rarely even look at the local news anymore.

i really think a lot of otherwise-smart folks severly underrate the effect the media environment has on... well, everything just because *you* don't watch Fox doesn't mean they aren't still driving the conversation and framing for almost every issue you care about

This is all I care about

I've been saying things along these lines for years. Refreshing to see someone else promoting media reform.

An issue that has plagued the Dems for a while now, is their complete obsession with the federal level which has gotten them booted from winnable local elections and now gerrymandered out of winnable state elections. It is not surprising to see it also playing out in local vs national media.

Soon?? It began decades ago. Stop watching TV you loons.

It already is RWNJ propaganda. All of the news media are owned by the wealthy (all Republicans) and run by Republican CEOs (like MS NOW's Rebecca Kutler). They're all propaganda now. I get better US news from UK's The Guardian.

There are independent, local news outlets like ours that have fended off private equity firms and who are fighting to stay viable. We need support from our government and from the people, especially as many of us operate as nonprofit news organizations. #localnews

Yes, so many things need to be reformed!

Just block it all

They just don’t seem to have the bandwidth

Soon? LOL.

Local TV stations need just feed more garbage!

I rarely hear from Dems the corruption of our media. It has to be a universal party message. in a low-trust world, we must destroy the trust that still exists in the captured media.

This would have to happen anyways in order to televise the nuremberg trials; can probably just bundle a bill

💯this.

Sorry about your dad.

I will stop watching altogether if they go right.

🤍+

It's vital. Reagan opened the doors of hell.

@schumer.senate.gov @kaine.senate.gov @slotkin.senate.gov @markwarner.bsky.social @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @chrismurphyct.bsky.social @repsuhas.bsky.social @thirdway.bsky.social #DumpChuck

It's so vital - though possibly more something it's important they act on in office than something that makes sense to campaign on

I think we're in a different place. The current moment will spew out anything lukewarm

Once market odds become “evidence,” the count is no longer the only institution claiming reality.

One of the best things we can do for our democracy is reinvigorate antitrust enforcement

same in france ^-. erm, macronistan.

And when that happens, only cultists will watch the garbage that is broadcasted..the rest of America will get their news and programs from Canada. Or on the net..

They won’t. They are part of it. They will allow progressives to be rounded up and demolished before they confront Republicans and their fascist police force.

It is now FFS… And the American disease is spreading here, carried by US money.

So... don't watch local news then.

I can’t believe corporate organizations still contribute on Twitter.

It's a complete failure already. TV news isn't even worth the bother anymore. For some years now, they're all the same spin machines. Honestly fuck TV, hasn't had good news for a long time.

They had actually better make court reform the centerpiece of their policy platform.

The Republicans figured out long ago that as long as you have the courts and the media, you never have to deliver a single day of effective Government in order to stay in power.

correct with refreshing and scattered exception, they are a decorative opposition party largely concerned with not upsetting corporate donors

The '28 Dem nominee will go along with the legacy media and do all the normal press availability stuff and not raise one fuss about how the entire mainstream media is stacked against the Democratic Party.

Nobody young watches so it doesn’t matter. They are on social media.

ENDORSE

watch MSNOW

free community college and a vast increase of funding of public television is a political necessity at this point

Why does everyone think publicly funded media is going to fix this? Exactly how well is it going to work when the people controlling the funding need investigating and then that money gets yanked away? That’s what a decades-long attack on NPR did.

It's already extremely bad

I beg to differ about begging the employee to do their constitutional obligations. They work for you.

Last time USA broke up monopoly...

The Seven Mountains Dominionists Cult

Hungary managed to get back from this, but it did take 16 years for people to realize that they have been told lies

People can only do the best they can with the information they have. If the information they have is all disinformation, there's no way they can make good decisions. We're not free without information. Media reform was a top priority in Hungary for Magyar. Should be here, too.

"All major sports championships should be free to view, not sequestered on various streaming platforms" is a policy like Zohrans free buses that is easy to digest and would bring people out to vote who never have before. You could easily that piece next to Trump's deal with Paramount+ for contrast

I'd be keen to see them try literally ANYTHING creative policy wise, whatsoever

Don't beg them Vote their complicit asses OUT

I've almost entirely stopped watching local news on TV due to the poor quality. Our PBS affiliate has launched a small local news division.

One of the biggest conceits of our politics is that “media is liberal”. This is a key principle organizing and justifying the modern GOP and it’s completely fabricated. Dems must break this conceit if they want to fracture the GOP coalition and stranglehold of con media.