Hacker News Reader

Comment by mountainofdeath | Hacker News Reader

Grand opening...grand closing.

There was a time when CNN was real news like the BBC and not a somewhat-centrist entertainment channel.

3/4ths of BBC's funding apparently comes from the license fee every Brit with a TV is charged, and I can't help but think that the only hard-news media that can survive these days is one with a captured income stream.

>3/4ths of BBC's funding apparently comes from the license fee every Brit with a TV is charged

Note that you only have to buy the TV licence if you watch live TV or use the BBC iPlayer streaming service.

PBS seems to do pretty well! As best I can tell, they have virtually no captured income streams (other than people forgetting to cancel their donations).

My understanding may be wrong but I thought the Koch brothers have been heavily bankrolling PBS

I think your understanding is wrong. PBS receives the majority of its money from small donors, followed by the federal and state funds.

The Koch brothers were involved in the Meredith Corporation's purchase of Time back in 2017, but I think that's the most direct involvement they've had with media institutions themselves. They're much bigger fans of the "independent institute that writes policy briefings for conservative politicians" model.

I believe the Koch brothers are bankrolling the newshour, but not PBS as a whole. By the way David is dead now, and I don't think Bill was considered part of the "Koch Brothers" since he was bought out of the company decades ago. Really it's just Koch brother now I guess.

yeah I'm off on many accounts, I think I was misled remembering newshour and nova's preroll Koch ads. Thanks for setting me straight.

> somewhat-centrist

That's hilarious. CNN is about as 'somewhat centrist' as Hugo Chavez.

CNN is very economically conservative, it's just socially (cynically 'performatively') liberal.

Ask your local Bernie bro what coverage was like when he was campaigning for social programs that would materially benefit the lower and middle classes.

> CNN is very economically conservative, it's just socially (cynically 'performatively') liberal.

'Corporate values'

Isn’t there a difference between corporatism and economic conservatism?

This is just a baffling comparison.

I realize it’s hyperbole, but it’s still baffling.

> Capitalists are leftists

> real news like BBC

The BBC is the most biased media channel if you don't count all the rest.

Lately I am enjoying Deutsche Welle in English the most as a non politically biased news source, much more so than BBC.

For European, or international, affairs? Which issues did DW cover more neutrally than the BBC?

What's centrist entertainment?

CNN today is not "somewhat centrist" unless your only bar is MSNBC. Over the past half decade CNN has veered into full blown left wing activism.

I know. I can't turn on CNN for more than 30 seconds without hearing about seizing the means of production from the capitalist ruling class and abolishing commodity production.

There exists more than a “communism to laissez-fairs capitalism” axis when people are talking about right vs left. I don’t think it’s productive to point this out when I think it’s generally understood what they mean in this specific context. In “mainstream” American politics (by which we can define by what appears on television and newspapers”) “left” implies mostly advancing the progressive front on racial and sexual issues, as distinguished from the American right, which would rather stop where we are on those social issues and cut taxes or something. Both of them sometimes play a little lip service to the other issues but not much more, since most other things are dictated by long-term service personnel and/or large mega corporations.

Even that I don’t think should really be thought of as a single axis - though they’re few enough now, there’s reactionaries who see capitalism as the source of all modern ills beginning with a very old ideological tradition that would look down just as much on communism.

If discussing "left" vs "right" then I agree there's ambiguity. If discussing "left wing" vs "right wing" I think the scales skew further towards communism vs capitalism.

If not an intentional lie, this could only be said by someone who has no idea what “left-wing” means.

How would you describe the political leanings of CNN?

Centrist or centre-right if judged by non-US standards.

Are you american? CNN would be extremely liberal on social issues pretty much everywhere in the world.

I’d like to see an end to this trope of “US liberalism would be conservative anywhere else.” In terms of social issues, it’s blatantly untrue, and US liberals are easily the furthest left of any foreign liberal group on most social issues. In terms of economic issues, it’s only true when comparing actual laws – the progressive wing of the US Democratic Party is at least as far left as any liberal political group holding similar power in any other country.

> CNN would be extremely liberal on social issues pretty much everywhere in the world.

Debatable, but even if true, its corporate capitalist economic stance would have it somewhere between the center and center-right, definitely no further left, the economic axis being the main determinant of left-right position.

I'd agree on your last point but I'd be curious to hear any example of a more socially liberal mainstream channel in the west.

Are you serious? On social issues cnn is very hard left compared to any parts of the world.

Broadly neo-liberal, probably closest to Ordoliberalism if one branch had to be picked.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com