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If Chomsky has taught me anything its that someone other than Gaza is getting genocided right now.
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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There is always more than one thing going on.
You're just going to hear mostly about the thing that's making the people who are telling you the most money. This would be less of an issue if you had a truly independent media as opposed to a capital dependent one.
It's not too much better with independent, publicly funded media, like in parts of Europe.
Those are not independent, those depend on the state securing their finances.
In Germany (and other parts of Europe), there are systems in place to prohibit dependence of the broadcasters On the government.
The Austrian broadcasting service (ORF) is known to be quite sceptical of the conservative government. The former chancellor of Austria actually wanted to coopt it, like Orban did in Hungary and failed to do so. That's basically, why he's the former chancellor.
You can compare it to the European Central Bank, or the FED.
It's not resistant to nepotism, but it's way better than the corporate hellscape you see in the US media.
It's quite telling that in Austria the far right wants to stop financing the ORF altogether by talking about how the population is forced to pay ORF fees and that it has a left wing bias.
I think that's the same in all European countries, at least it is in Denmark. I guess the old adage is true, the truth has a left wing bias.
Same for Canada. "Why's should I pay taxes for this news service I always disagree with?"
Didn't Chomsky also note the supposed "left wing bias" in "Manufacturing consent"?
The government is forcing the people to pay for the public broadcasting. That's why they are inherently dependant on the government. Something that's literally funded by the government can not be independent from the government.
I'm living in Germany actually. Don't get me wrong, I like the ÖRR as alternative to private media. But to say it's independent from the government is really naive.
I'm not claiming that it's completely independent. But there are safeguards preventing direct influence of parliament on the media.
So, yes: it depends on the state, but it's not (directly) influenced by the executive/legislative/judicative branches of government.