PleaseScream

I would say America is not totally Effed, but we're authoritarian curious, and that itself is a terrible shock. But don't confuse general bias that's aways been around with intentionally spreading falsehood for power, money, and politics. There aren't two equal news universes.

It's definitely worse now, in part because the folks who spread lies have the ability to test and hone messages that will spread. That's why lies spread faster than the truth online. You can tell people what they want to hear, unhampered by the truth. Of course money and corporate interests are always a factor, but these days it's worst. And yes, 100% these messages are created and spread quite purposefully.

I mostly open about 50-75 tabs a day with a plain old browser. I also check twitter quite often and get stories shared by readers or editors.

It's definitely not over or necessarily trending in the right direction in terms of political trends. But in terms of our media obsession, it's a bit better. So that's one hopeful sign.

Facts do matter in one media universe. They are intentionally destroyed in the other. But everyone wants clicks and engagement. And that's a problem. One newspaper a day was enuf before. And it's more than enuf now. But the race your attention is always on, and the extremes get the clicks.