Slate

[maudefindlay]

Is Slate legitimate for a news source? I consider it liberal, but would you call it far left?

[waverly]

Media Bias chart has it as far left. www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

[maudefindlay]

Thank you waverly.

[pixy0stix]

I agree that it's far left.

[maudefindlay]

Thank you both. I knew it was at least liberal, but someone called it far left today and I don't read more than Dear Prudence to know if that was true.

[Deleted]

Yes, it’s liberal….but I don’t think it’s as far left as Newsmax is far right. It’s definitely biased left though.

[livinitup]

I think when someone lobs “far whatever” on either side it’s saying they are lying for their bias. I read Slate, enjoy it, and don’t get “they are so far over the line they are lying” at all.

[circa1978]

My opinion as a former journalist and regular Slate reader is that it would fall into far left. It also inserts opinions into just about every piece. I would never consider it an unbiased news source, although I do read it daily.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Dec 8, 2023 18:52:42 GMT -5 @villainv said:

Yes, it’s liberal….but I don’t think it’s as far left as Newsmax is far right. It’s definitely biased left though.

This is basically what I was going to say. It's liberal, it it's not like the liberal version of Newsmax or something.

[aurora]

Dec 8, 2023 22:43:23 GMT -5 livinitup said:

I think when someone lobs “far whatever” on either side it’s saying they are lying for their bias. I read Slate, enjoy it, and don’t get “they are so far over the line they are lying” at all.

I guess this is semantics, but I don't think a news org has to lie to be considered "far" left (or right). It can also be about what stories they choose to report and not report, whether opinion pieces are clearly marked, how inflammatory headlines are, etc. Frankly, a site that outright lies & makes things up shouldn't be considered news!

To the original question, I do read Slate occasionally, but also consider it the furthest left of the news sources I check.

[Deleted]

Also, I used to read a lot more Slate before they moved everything behind a paywall. I understand that this is the reality of journalism as we know it, and that they need to charge for content in order to stay in business. But it’s annoying, so I just stopped reading it.

[pixy0stix]

Dec 9, 2023 0:33:01 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

My opinion as a former journalist and regular Slate reader is that it would fall into far left. It also inserts opinions into just about every piece. I would never consider it an unbiased news source, although I do read it daily.

This is exactly it. They're not a news source at this point, most of their articles read as editorial and opinion pieces. Which is fine, but people have to realize that every piece they post is going to have a considerable biased slant.

I appreciate this discussion.

[maudefindlay]

Thank you everybody. This was based on a conversation with a neighbor. I just read some advice columns on there and I'm a liberal and feel the advice is definitely liberal, but rational and valid and not out of line. I don't read the editorials there, I could see that being more an issue for sure.

[circa1978]

Dec 9, 2023 13:26:25 GMT -5 @villainv said:

Also, I used to read a lot more Slate before they moved everything behind a paywall. I understand that this is the reality of journalism as we know it, and that they need to charge for content in order to stay in business. But it’s annoying, so I just stopped reading it.

No one here asked for a dissertation but, this is sort of my passion topic so....this is another important conversation because there ARE centrist news sources that are behind a paywall and it is a problem. AP is still a good source, and things like ProPublica, but in my opinion a major part of Americans' growing lack of media literacy is that free, biased news sources abound and many quality news sources (leaving aside Slate being biased) are not. Of course, newspapers have always cost money but generally they were affordable for many Americans. People don't want to pay now for "what they can get for free" - not understanding the difference - and trained journalists have got to earn a paycheck. So many good reporters moved into non-profits and higher ed and marketing and whatnot, and there are a far reporters working today compared to say 15 years ago.

This is compounded by the fact that many in the generation ahead of me in newsrooms - my mentors - were laid off as news organization tried to stay profitable when ads sales fell, as were many in my generation of reporters. We've gone from a system where people were edited by 3 to 6 people on every story at most major papers to one where folks are publishing with no review or little review, which creates errors and does not develop the skills of new reporters, further eroding the public faith. Journalism has always been a craft where mentorship was built in and that is broken, because even the good journalists who have stayed are overworked (convergence!) and there is not only no room/budget for not the kind of investigative reporting I did, but even basic coverage of communities and government.

Finally, I think a lot of journalists/publications who are now fully on the left had to kind of ask themselves - can we really be unbiased about something like the Jan 6 attack? Are there two sides to that story? What do you do when the president is literally trying to dismantle democracy? I care deeply about this and would have spent my life in newspapers if the industry hadn't tanked and I respect the people still trying to find the answer to this problem but honestly, it feels unfixable. I know there are other former/current journalists here so interested in other takes too.

[basilosaurus]

Dec 9, 2023 11:58:26 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Dec 8, 2023 18:52:42 GMT -5 @villainv said:

Yes, it’s liberal….but I don’t think it’s as far left as Newsmax is far right. It’s definitely biased left though.

This is basically what I was going to say. It's liberal, it it's not like the liberal version of Newsmax or something.

I think this is key. There's a difference between saying (I'm making this up) Kissinger should have been tried for war crimes and (not making this up) saying trump win 2020 and that antifa caused violent chaos on Jan 6.

[Deleted]

[mention]circa1978 [/mention] thanks for that! Do you see any solutions?

Many people talk about how wonderful BBC is….and I just don’t know that state-sponsored news is the way to go. While I appreciate that their international reporting is pretty unbiased, when I lived in the UK I found a lot of bias in their national reporting. Not what they said necessarily, but more about what they chose to report on (and not to report on). But media companies are obviously driven by profit….or at least must stay solvent.

[circa1978]

I think more news sources could be run as nonprofits, if the problem was just that the model of profitability has failed. But the idea that news can be unbiased in the current political environment...I don't know.

[pixy0stix]

Dec 10, 2023 7:59:13 GMT -5 @villainv said:

[mention]circa1978 [/mention] thanks for that! Do you see any solutions?

Many people talk about how wonderful BBC is….and I just don’t know that state-sponsored news is the way to go. While I appreciate that their international reporting is pretty unbiased, when I lived in the UK I found a lot of bias in their national reporting. Not what they said necessarily, but more about what they chose to report on (and not to report on). But media companies are obviously driven by profit….or at least must stay solvent.

So how do you feel about NPR?

[mrsukyankee]

Dec 10, 2023 7:59:13 GMT -5 @villainv said:

[mention]circa1978 [/mention] thanks for that! Do you see any solutions?

Many people talk about how wonderful BBC is….and I just don’t know that state-sponsored news is the way to go. While I appreciate that their international reporting is pretty unbiased, when I lived in the UK I found a lot of bias in their national reporting. Not what they said necessarily, but more about what they chose to report on (and not to report on). But media companies are obviously driven by profit….or at least must stay solvent.

It was fabulous, but now the lovely Tories have put people in place and so it's becoming more and more right wing. It's meant to be politically more neutral but it's not any longer.

[Deleted]

Dec 10, 2023 14:48:50 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Dec 10, 2023 7:59:13 GMT -5 @villainv said:

[mention]circa1978 [/mention] thanks for that! Do you see any solutions?

Many people talk about how wonderful BBC is….and I just don’t know that state-sponsored news is the way to go. While I appreciate that their international reporting is pretty unbiased, when I lived in the UK I found a lot of bias in their national reporting. Not what they said necessarily, but more about what they chose to report on (and not to report on). But media companies are obviously driven by profit….or at least must stay solvent.

So how do you feel about NPR?

I think NPR is great!