• Transient Punk@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Why is this getting downvoted so much?

      Edit: Downvoting me for asking a question? Don’t ever change reddit lemmy

      • hibsen@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        From what I’ve seen so far, a number of reasons:

        1. It’s not overly accurate, with a tendency to report from a basis of American centrism as though that’s the sole metric to measure what is left and right. I assume they decided they had to pick something to base it off of, but even a lot of Americans take issue with what an American centrist considers left-wing.

        2. It’s a bot, and some folks hate those enough to downvote it every time rather than block it.

        3. Some folks prefer to decide for themselves what’s credible. I’ve also read comments saying they don’t like that there’s no disclaimer — plenty of people get riled when something is presented as though it’s the sole arbiter of truth.

        I’ve probably missed plenty, too.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It’s not even centrist. It’s straight up conservative. All the papers of record with good reputations are listed as at least left leaning. It’s meant to feed into the idea that mainstream media is biased.

          And it’s meant to make very conservative stuff look mainstream. For example the Ayn Rand Institute gets a center right lean. The same rating as the New York Times on center left lean. It’s very well done and you wouldn’t notice it if you didn’t take a close look.

          • hibsen@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yep, definitely forgot to list this complaint. Frankly a paper with a good reputation having a left lean would seem obvious to me — the right abandoned reality a long time ago.

            I think it makes more sense if you start from the supposition that centrists in America are just right-wingers who still remember how to be ashamed of their batshit views when they’re in public.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        MBFC is a conservative project to give their rags more credibility while painting the news organizations with good records of being objective as left leaning. There is no actual center designation. The best anything can get is center left or center right. So on center left you have stuff like NYT, feeding into the idea that mainstream news is biased left. And on center right you have the Ayn Rand Institute, getting it’s credibility washed by being placed in any category with the word center in the name.