In France, there is a powerful left-wing politician named Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
He was senator for decades. He was previously a minister. He has run for President multiple times. People close him describe him as a political beast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Mélenchon
On october 3th 2023, the newspaper Le Monde published an absolutely astonishing investigation into his girlfriend. They reveal that his girlfriend SCREAMS and HUMILIATES ordinary people. And he knows that.
3 days later, on october 6th 2023, Melenchon took a trip to Morocco.
Believing he was far away for any camera, he made a cynical confession to moroccan university students:
“I really don’t care what newspapers reveal. The vast majority of voters don’t read newspapers. They watch online videos”
"We are now in the great era of social media"
Elon Musk regularly attacks the New York Times.
On social media, he urges people to not read it.
That’s because the New York Times has published incredible stories about him.
Elon Musk knowingly lied about the safety of self-driving vehicles. Multiple people were killed
Musk is sexually harassing SpaceX engineers
The Musk Foundation is breaking the law:
When powerful politicians and businessmen tell you “don’t read newspapers”, they aren’t trying to give you good life advice.
It’s a manipulation attempt.
Yeah, sure, and journalists are entirely objective people with no editorial line and personal beliefs, and every corporate newspaper is a total truth machine completely independant from their investors’ interests and agendas.
I find that setting my morning alarm to play NPR Morning Edition on KCRW helps avoid that corporate pressure, especially now that it’s completely listener-funded and doesn’t even have the threat of losing government money because they already cancelled it.