Your instinct preferring a benevolent censor overlord to crowdsourcing is wrong. And the lefties at Kontinuum merely want to go back to the status quo you describe in the paragraph beginning “The golden era is over…” Cronkite, a leftie, only behaved himself because the Fairness Doctrine was in place at that time. But I am reminded of John Adams’ warning that the US Constitution is only appropriate for a “moral and religious people” and is wholly unsuitable for any other. If GOD is “dead” or ignored there is no moral authority and nothing left but selfish opinion and chaos, which is what we see in the social media morass.
As I always say, who fact checks the fact checkers? How do we know if the Kontinuum Project will arrive at the truth? I’m a free speech absolutist. The antidote to hate speech is more speech, not censorship. I follow many journalists who I believe are reliable. Ken Klippenstein, Ryan Grim, Aaron Mate, Matt Stoller, Krystal Ball, David Sirota, Kyle Kulinski, Katie Halper get things right most of the time but not always. My favorite podcast is Chapo Trap House. It’s political comedy that is always spot on. Check it out.
News is different. There must be standards of objectivity, which are disappearing. And because FB is a mega-disseminator, you will find hate speech disguised as news all the time, including from Trump. FB /Tik Tok is no longer a pubic square, where you might want to defend free speech. They are, for all intents and purposes, a news publisher.
I would love objectivity but who gets to decide what is objective or subjective? Who sets the standards? That’s why I believe free speech must be absolute and we all get to choose what is objective or subjective. The alternative is censorship and then the constant arguments as to whether the censorship was justified.
Your instinct preferring a benevolent censor overlord to crowdsourcing is wrong. And the lefties at Kontinuum merely want to go back to the status quo you describe in the paragraph beginning “The golden era is over…” Cronkite, a leftie, only behaved himself because the Fairness Doctrine was in place at that time. But I am reminded of John Adams’ warning that the US Constitution is only appropriate for a “moral and religious people” and is wholly unsuitable for any other. If GOD is “dead” or ignored there is no moral authority and nothing left but selfish opinion and chaos, which is what we see in the social media morass.
As I always say, who fact checks the fact checkers? How do we know if the Kontinuum Project will arrive at the truth? I’m a free speech absolutist. The antidote to hate speech is more speech, not censorship. I follow many journalists who I believe are reliable. Ken Klippenstein, Ryan Grim, Aaron Mate, Matt Stoller, Krystal Ball, David Sirota, Kyle Kulinski, Katie Halper get things right most of the time but not always. My favorite podcast is Chapo Trap House. It’s political comedy that is always spot on. Check it out.
News is different. There must be standards of objectivity, which are disappearing. And because FB is a mega-disseminator, you will find hate speech disguised as news all the time, including from Trump. FB /Tik Tok is no longer a pubic square, where you might want to defend free speech. They are, for all intents and purposes, a news publisher.
I would love objectivity but who gets to decide what is objective or subjective? Who sets the standards? That’s why I believe free speech must be absolute and we all get to choose what is objective or subjective. The alternative is censorship and then the constant arguments as to whether the censorship was justified.