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Comment by hasdf | Hacker News Reader

Why is it such a big deal that there is a news network that diverges from the left wing group think? If you go to CNN, ArsTechnica, or Hacker News you see the same topics and the same opinions in the comments almost verbatim. So what is so wrong with having one or two sites with some diversity of thought? Don't people get tired of reading the exact same talking points on site after site?

I just do not get this drive to censure and destroy everything outside of the dominant left wing media narrative

edit - read the comments on the arstechnica article. It is pure political hatred. Completely nuts

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Because OAN is not really just the other side of the coin. It's for the most part pure factless drivel. I'm all for a broad range of views. There's a difference between being unfair to one side and just blatant lies. OAN doesn't seem to fact check at all and their interviews of conservative candidates are so laughably propagandistic they would make a North Korean news anchor blush.

And no, I do not think that any of the other mainstream outlets are just as bad or even close to as bad. The right needs more smart, good faith analysis on the airwaves, but OAN ain't it.

There's plenty of factless garbage reporting on CNN.

Like I said, no comparison. You will occasionally find false things reported on CNN. But it's mostly low stakes stuff. Nothing like OAN.

Like the "mostly peaceful protests that don't spread covid" burning down my home town?

Anyone telling you they weren't mostly peaceful is lying and a source you should avoid. Protests took place in countless cities across the globe. Incidence of violence took place with a tiny fraction of people in a tiny fraction of cities. And some of that violence was instigated by heavy handed police responses.

Yeah, remember when CNN threatened to dox someone? Remember, this is the network with Chris Cuomo, who was allowed to interview his own brother, giving him softball questions. The network where Chris Cuomo faked part of his Covid-19 quarantine. The network that was talking about peaceful protests while showing flames from the riot in the background.

CNN is the lowest of the low. At this point, it's simply Weekly World News with a thin veneer of fake respectability based on past accomplishments. I think people are remembering what it used to be and not what it has become. I think many media outlets are coasting on previous reputations since most people do not read most of their news from a single source. So you might not notice the bad CNN stories, if you only see the few stories that are mostly okay. But those stories are definitely becoming fewer and fewer.

I think this is a problem on both sides of the fence, this is the second coming of yellow journalism. I hope it doesn't last too much longer, because it's so hard to sift through biased stories and figure out what is fact and what is opinion.

Remember when OAN tried to help overthrow the government and trample on the Constitution by reporting completely unverified lies that our election had been stolen?

You picked out a few examples. OAN could beat that in an hour. They are still reporting that the last election was stolen and that there was massive voter fraud. They spent months reporting that Dominion voting systems stole the election by "switching votes" with their "algorithms" controlled from Spain or whatever. If it wasn't for the ongoing Billion dollar lawsuit from Dominion, they still would be. Their fact checking is so non-existent they have have had multiple guests on that turned out to just be trolls that aren't even who they say they were.

Out of curiosity, do you regularly watch OAN and do you have an example of what you would consider "the other side of the coin" today?

I don't regularly watch it because it is too cringe inducing and a total waste of time. But I do occasionally peruse their website and see clips.

The biggest example of their "other side of the coin" is that they are continuing to report that there is evidence of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election and that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.

On their homepage right now, they actually have a piece that is floating the idea that Fauci and the CDC may have introduced the coronavirus on purpose in an insidious plot to force everyone to get serious about vaccination. https://www.oann.com/fauci-hhs-officials-discuss-using-new-v...

People are always--and understandably--shocked to see Fox News' election desk report things accurately, even in the 2020 election. They have some standards despite all the bloviating tools trying to launder propaganda as opinion.

OAN does not even have that. OAN is for people who think Fox News is left wing.

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