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There's a big difference between selling food and saying stuff in a campaign.
Generally, the old way was if a politician lied in an ad, the media called them out and that retort became a devastating attack on the person who lied.
The system sort of policed itself.
Media 1/ https://twitter.com/Porter_Anderson/status/1302632831219380229
Generally, the old way was if a politician lied in an ad, the media called them out and that retort became a devastating attack on the person who lied.
The system sort of policed itself.
Media 1/ https://twitter.com/Porter_Anderson/status/1302632831219380229
growing weaker AND refusing to explicitly call out bullshit because of fear of being yelled at by conservatives has diminished this system, but it's still in force in many ways. Trump is a very weird aberration.
The problem is one of divining intent on the lies part. 2/
The problem is one of divining intent on the lies part. 2/
How do you show someone is lying and who is the arbiter? That's really hard for the publishers of advertising to suss out. Also, free speech through the right to campaign is the most sacrosanct protection the government should offer. Better to allow a few liars to get 3/
elected to than to empower some kind of government entity to stifle deserving messages.
All that said, I do think we need better incentives to punish the liars. The media desperately needs to be counterbalanced from its profit motive in the news business because that leads 4/
All that said, I do think we need better incentives to punish the liars. The media desperately needs to be counterbalanced from its profit motive in the news business because that leads 4/
sensationalizing crowding out truth. Voters care about and want the truth and that void needs some kind of government relation to bolster it. Whether it's some kind of reintroduction of a fairness doctrine or equal time or whatever, we have to break through people's bubbles. 5/
I don't have an answer here, but the most prolific liar in history in the White House right now demonstrates why this needs to be fixed. Transparency - especially with money - is the only thing everyone agrees can happen, but that's just the start. There needs to be more 6/
done to add incentives to publishing and promoting the truth. Whether that's additional public funding for journalistic enterprises, some kind of regulation on promoting bullshit, or I don't know, we have to do something. 7/7
