"Network Propaganda": What is the Remedy

 

So, granting (as I think we must) the conclusions in Network Propaganda, what are we to do about it?

On this, the authors are not optimistic.  A wide array of proposed measures for regulating the internet fail because they don't address the underlying problem of asymmetric polarization.  

The ideal solution, the authors say, is the rise of a facts-based center right media that gives accurate information with a conservative slant.  However, there is no evidence of any desire for such an outlet.*  The thrill of ever-escalating outrage and radicalization is simply too hard to break.

Their only other alternative is not to let the rightwing noise machine bleed over into the mainstream media.  Only about 30% of the population are chronic outrage addicts.  Our best bet is to contain them and reach out to the remaining group who lean Republican, but can be swayed by reality, or are low information.

Because rightwing narratives invariably bleed over into the mainstream. The mainstream media are also sensitive to accusations of liberal bias and determined to counteract them.  Right wingers know of this sensitivity and use it to work the refs.  The authors lament the traditional media view that objectivity means giving equal time to both sides and never favoring one over the other.  That is not objective journalism when one side is lying an the other is telling the truth, albeit with some errors.  In the case of the 2016 election, new media were well aware of how utterly unqualified Trump was to govern. They remained consistently hostile throughout the election.  But in order to maintain balance, they had to treat Hillary as just as bad. Hence the e-mails.  Furthermore, any story, no matter how false, that gets enough circulation makes its way into the mainstream press simply to prove that the mainstream media is not liberally biased.

The authors' advice is to stop doing that and instead to base reporting on what is factually accurate, regardless of what politicians and rightwing outlets say.  I am certainly in favor of that.  In fact, the Trump presidency witnesses a certain resurgence in serious investigative journalism, and major outlets realized they could not rely on anything Trump said and would have to do their own investigation instead.

Unfortunately, we are now back to business as usual, treating a man who attempted to overturn an election as just another candidate an treating his 91 felony counts and Joe Biden's age as equivalent.