34 Comments
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Liz Russell's avatar

I appreciate your position that we can't blame the internet. This does nothing to speak to the reality we live in and how information is shared. We have to leverage the tools already in place and - as you say - flood the zone with facts!

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lunafaer (she/they)'s avatar

such a great resource. and most are seen as legit by people on both sides. thank you!!!

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

I’m engineering it so there are literally no excuses for someone to avoid being a Fact Warrior. Dilute the propaganda by flooding the zone with facts!!

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JustJoy's avatar

The correct link for More Perfect Union: https://perfectunion.us/

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Thank you! I corrected.

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teri Gray's avatar

I would love for a forensic accountant to figure out how much the billionaires have spent on RW infrastructure & bribes and compare it to what they have saved in taxes. Not to mention the decrease in GDP from wage suppression.

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Do you know any forensic accountants? Sounds like an awesome project!

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teri Gray's avatar

I wish I did. Hopefully another reader will know one. What’s the names of those NYTimes reporters that work this beat?

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Diane McConnell's avatar

This time last year I felt I couldn't afford news subscriptions. But then my appetite became so voracious that it occurred to me:

All my online shopping, retail therapy, helped me make it day to day. But my appetite for news was too great. And so I began allocating some of those dollars to subscriptions, and I now get so much more!

If I can do this I bet you can also!

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Diane! This is an awesome example of the choices we can make to orient our lifestyle towards civic engagement and promoting/supporting pro-democracy information! Way to go! What was your process like? How did you decide where to get subcriptions?

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Danara's avatar

Yes. Perfect list helps me counter crap others spout that are untrue.

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laura oshea's avatar

OMG Someone finally got it right!!!! Thank you! Thank you!!! For years I have known this but I am too small in the scene of things to be heard. When regular people find out the real ideas behind these billionaires they hate everything about it but it was easy to distract people with Christian, transgender, CRT, race, gay and every other ridiculous thing anyone can think of. We are at a crossroads of whether they take America or whether we can keep our country and not be their slaves.

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Kevin Burke's avatar

Midas touch network

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Francis X MacFarlane's avatar

Question everything - The dumbest question in the whole world - is the one you don’t ask. Remember “Information is Power” and the more information you have the more powerful you are!

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Rick's avatar

Both parties are complicit

Left wing

Right wing

Belong to the same bird

It's not about

D's vs R's

It's all about

WEthePEOPLE

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Hey, Rick. Thanks for engaging. The people need to engage civically and vote in overwhelming numbers for the candidates they prefer. In order to make those decisions they need access to high-quality, fact-based information and the desire to be more than a low-information voter. That’s what we talk about here in addition to exposing the areas of society that guide our outcomes via manipulation of our information ecosystem. Be well.

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Rick's avatar

Yes sir appreciate the information,support and opportunities to make a difference. I was born in 1965 the era of civil rights and peaceful protests. My father had to hire a civil rights attorney to help cleanup my high school driving record for me to enter the Air Guard. I didn't know just how much all these years later how I'd be influenced by that renowned lawyer who walked with MLK,John Lewis and the like across the Selma street bridge. So...... yes I'll do my best to be a high information provider and too allow others to share without being nasty but rather be a force that is inclusive and encouraging. We are more alike than different and why my first comment was speaking to our citizenry as a whole.

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Hell yeah, Rick!

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Chris's avatar

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 everyone a fucking leftist propaganda arm. Gtfoh

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Chris! Thanks for engaging. What does leftist mean to you? Can you explain how these outlets mount to leftist propaganda? There doesn’t appear to be by evidence of that. No history of standing up for the worker or advocating too many positions with any real temerity.

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Chris's avatar

You’re joking right?

Every outlet you mentioned pushes nonstop far left viewpoints and leftist propaganda. NPR for example accepts government funding (hopefully that ends with the BBB yet to be passed). It is virulently anti Trump and is in lockstep with Democrat talking points. The Guardian is notoriously leftist. The AP knew of the October 7 attacks in advance because they were headquartered in Gaza and are sympathetic to the lie that Palestine is oppressed by the free state of Israel. When every cogent person knows Hamas are the murderous oppressors that were voted into power by something like 75% of Gazans. Even your language in your post is a giveaway. You guys are always accusing us of being the fascists - whatever you accuse us of you are guilty of yourselves. Classic Alinsky. And the argument that TRUMP/MAGA who advocate for less government, more power to the people etc holds no water when every leftist policy advocates for the opposite: top down centralized control of transportation food education etc … Come on bro. The old playbook doesn’t work anymore 😂

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Chris, thanks for engaging. What are the sources for any of your claims? What's your media diet in general? The world's healthiest democracies publicly fund media to the tune of $100 per capita. Taxpayer funded media is a positive for democratic function. I assume that's not what your stream of information tells you, but that's the reality of the situation. It would be bad if all journalism behaved the Fox does as a direct arm of the Republican Party and perhaps that is what you fear when you discuss publicly funded media. NPR receives 1-2% of its funding from the federal government. If anything, NPR normalizes Donald Trump despite his complete lack of fitness, deep corruption, and coup attempt. I assume that's not what your stream of information tell you, but that's the reality of the situation. Check out my article about how Trump is historically unfit.

Journalism is democracy's immune system and Trump is a cancer on democracy. That's not a partisan take. It's a fundamentally true statement about the world based on facts.

The Guardian is a fact-based, pro-democracy outlet. What is your definition of leftist? There's no such thing as objectivity in journalism so we should all have a biased towards factually accurate sources that are pro-democracy. If you aren't pro-democracy that's your right, but my bias is towards facts and democracy.

Your claims about the AP are not true. I understand that your trusted sources of information told you that, but this appears to have originated from some random Israeli group and a random TikToker in November of 2024. Here's a fact-check: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/nov/20/tiktok-posts/no-the-associated-press-and-cnn-didnt-know-about-h/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The Gazan/Hamas voting thing has been explained a million times. 75% of Gazans voted, but the share of votes was like 44% for Hamas and 41% for another party. This was also in 2006. It's 19 years later. Many who were unable to vote in 2006 have never had the opportunity as there has not been another election since.

I hope you can see that many of the things you are sharing as absolute fact are indeed not facts at all. You have misrepresented a number of things. I don't blame you or intend to cause you any grief. I am desperate for you to engage with fact-based sources of information.

Please read and share my other articles about how our information ecosystem works. I know you want truthful information about the world and would like to offer the Lists I made on Bluesky. Check out "The News" list on our Bluesky profile, @publicenlightenment.com.

Lastly, claims of "leftist" bias in mainstream media, which does suffer from profit-seeking imperatives but not in the ways you describe, are a myth perpetuated by far right politicians since the 1950s. There's no such thing as liberal media bias. I made a video all about it and I invite you to watch.

Be well. And, I'd love to know your media diet and set you up with a more nutritious one.

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Chris's avatar

They got you mainlining the Kool Aid

Your definition of democracy is not my definition of democracy

Just because many governments fund media does not refute my claims nor does it justify it

If you take funds from gov and purport to be “journalists “ you are lying or stupid if you think you are not beholden to the source of those taxes on the entire nation

You are clearly partisan

As am I but I am a chef not a Charlatan

If you know who runs Fox you know it is not a conservative organization

The left always mentions FOX as being on the right and never mentions EVERY OTHER MAINSTREAM NEWS ORGS as being far left

If you guys tell the truth then let the FREE MARKET DECIDE that and you won’t need funding if you succeed

There is a reason CNN NBC ABC CBS MSNBC et al have lost 50% of viewership and consequently ad dollars … because their trust is on the single digits. LOWER THAN CONGRESS LOL

If my facts about Gaza votes is wrong - it’s splitting hairs - Gaza is ruled by Hamas. Period.

I don’t support the Republican Party

I support President Trump

The guy who was a billionaire when he ENTERED office

If journalism is “democracy’s immune system “ then why is there never any pushback by leftist journalists interviewing leftist politicians/issues/others but nothing but negative spin and outright activism when it comes to people on the opposite side? Shouldn’t journalists employ equal standards to all?

How would you describe the news coverage of Biden’s obvious mental decline for the past four years?

You seem to fetishize the word democracy

How would you describe Kamala Harris being inserted into the last race? She wasn’t top of ticket. Biden was. What democratic process was that??

Is it good or bad that we took out Irans nuclear facilities? Bottom line good or bad?

Is it good or bad that we close our borders and guard them from illegal entry?

Should we protect the unborn and promote safe sex?

Do you think fed gov should fund Planned Parenthood? Or up to the states?

You and I have different ideas of what democracy means in the USA

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

No we don’t have different ideas about what is democracy. We both agree we should be deciding what our political outcomes are based on facts about the world. You are consuming right wing propaganda that tells you a corporate system of informing the public is “leftist.” That’s just not what reality is. We all should use a fact-based media diet to feed our brains. Be well.

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<3's avatar

Guardian can no longer be considered uncompromised.

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

What do you mean? Thanks for engaging.

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

They sold off a publication, the Observer. Why does this mean they are “compromised?”

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<3's avatar

Anytime Carole Cadwalkadr talks, I listen. Shes sounding the alarm. So I listen.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/guardian-the-observer-sale-tortoise-media-carole-cadwalladr-b1201584.html

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Thanks, and that’s a good rule of thumb. But in a world so deeply affected by toxic disinformation, the Guardian is still doing lots of good journalism and has great reporters. Shuttering the Observer doesn’t change that for me in a meaningful way that I’m going to somehow avoid recommending a fact-based, pro-democracy newsroom in an otherwise polluted ecosystem. 🤷‍♂️

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Laura T RN BSN's avatar

And right now important to support

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CollectiveWave's avatar

I completely agree but remember the news can't be analytical but needs to be delivered based on emotion for MAGA and republicans to engage!

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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Interesting thought. In general, mainstream news product is delivered based on commercial imperatives. Right-wing media products are rarely news products and mostly propaganda.

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Jun 21
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Brian Hansbury's avatar

Awesome!

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