Mainstream Media Culpability in the Rise of Extremism

Whether you believe the main-stream media is as pure as the white-driven snow, or you believe that many main-stream media outlets regularly cover-up and commit acts of censorship and bias– Into the Storm documentary series is worth watching to better understand what happens when the “hostility of repression speeds up the treadmill of extremism”, as Hoback characterizes the momentum of the movement. 

“The hostility of repression speeds up the treadmill of extremism.” –said filmmaker Cullen Hoback recently on the Joe Rogan program.

The film clearly demonstrates how when a major segment of our population no longer believes that major media outlets are dedicated to reporting the truth, but instead, their agenda is to report on stories that validate their own theories and beliefs, viewers will believe far more radical ideas. 

Into the Storm shows what measures concerned citizens will take in fighting (even with violence if needed) for “the truth”. 

This brings up some massively important questions: Should social media platforms operate as arbiters of truth? How much moderation and de-platforming for various views and opinions should be conducted by social media platforms?

QAnon was a fictitious character who duped millions of Americans, but the fiction of Q produced massive real-world consequences. However, the rise of QAnon and the “chans” would never have been so powerful if the mainstream media and social media didn’t determine to suppress or ignore or label as “misinformation” so many important stories that could be damaging to the Democratic party in particular.

Watch The Video About How Discussion of this Topic was Removed on Reddit’s Entertainment Forum

Only Time Magazine chose to report on the aftermath of this widespread “misinformation” and media censorship during the 2020 presidential election. Time reported how the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was buried and silenced on all social media platforms as “Russian disinformation”. Later all major claims about Hunter Biden’s bribes taken by Barizma and the Chinese, where a percentage was given to the “Big Man” were proven to be true, yet no major media outlets provided apologies or corrections. 

Today, more Americans than ever are moving away from the mainstream media to alternative methods to find information and truth. For example, CNN’s Primetime Anchor Anderson Cooper received around 238,000 viewers on average per episode last year, while podcast host Joe Rogan reaches an average of 11 million listeners per episode. Not even the top-rated TV news program NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt’s 8.5 million viewers can touch Rogan’s audience. 

Rogan’s independent analysis and non-partisan examination to find the truth on issues (as well as his antics such as getting Elon Musk to take a drag on a joint) have drawn a massive audience. Rogan delves into what the mainstream media labels as “disinformation”: he promoted Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid. He was then accused by CNN of “using horse dewormer”. Rogan then fought back against the network and made CNN appear foolish, as he proved that millions of people around the world had used Ivermectin to treat disease and several de-platformed doctors swear by the treatment. CNN continues to attack Rogan as their ratings continue to decline. But the legacy media seems to have made an alliance.

The left-leaning legacy media has called on social media, which has billions of more users than the TV networks, to become the arbiters of truth. This was not a role that Facebook, Google, and YouTube wanted to maintain, but since Trump’s 2016 victory, this arbitration has now become routine and many would characterize it as highly politicized. It’s now widely viewed as a mechanism for the left-wing media to control the media narrative. But obviously, this daily dose of politically correct woke news hasn’t been well accepted by especially younger viewers as CNN’s ratings have plummeted by 40% since Trump left office. People are tuning out and finding alternative sources. 

What is clear to this independent observer, is that most mainstream and alternative networks are designed to promote an agenda more than to report facts. One of CNN’s major sponsors and advertisers is Pfizer, so analysis of the Covid vaccine regulations is not debated and all of the “truth” according to CNN comes directly from the CDC guidelines. This has resulted in only further severing and fragmentation of audiences who are more inclined to trust individual reporters than major TV networks. 

The debate comes down to control. How much should the government along with big-tech and big corporations control our sources of news and information? Should anyone or everyone promoting what political leaders along with big tech authorities deem as “misinformation” or “disinformation” be banned from the town square or leading social media platforms? Should anybody with alternative ideas or opinions be forced to operate on the lunatic fringe?  

People will always exercise their liberty to believe as they choose. This is one of the most fundamental rights that has made America the bastion for free speech. 

QAnon was a virus in the intellectual discourse created in large part by mainstream media censorship and burying of stories. Time magazine recognizes this censorship on a mass scale that worked in large part to assist Joe Biden to win a victory. The ultimate question boils down to, will our country heal from the current division, or will new versions of QAnon and Antifa arise? Secondly, will Americans ever again be able to debate issues in a civil manner based on using the same set of facts? Or are we now in a true postmodernism era where your facts are your own whether they are true or not?

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The Hostility of Repression and Into the Storm

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