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Comment by pc_edwin | Hacker News Reader

It has become evident that placing one's trust in mainstream media is an exercise in futility, as they are often found to be biased in their reporting against tech.

Elon Musk's claim regarding the algorithm flaw resulting in his de-ranking was indeed accurate.

The feature was intended to lower the ranking of frequently being blocked accounts. However, the flaw was that it did not account for larger accounts, allowing a small group of individuals to effectively engage in a DDOS attack against large accounts.

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What’s mainstream media in this case? The Verge, a web-only publication that only writes about tech? Seems like stretching the definition beyond any usefulness…

Your question is quite intriguing. In my view, mainstream media refers to media organisations that are prominent in the current cultural and political environment.

In my opinion, these organisations have largely turned against the tech industry, perceiving it as a competitor and a generally negative force.

For instance, The Verge is owned by Vox, which I personally consider with all due respect an extremely biased leftist institution that has increasingly engaged in activist journalism in recent times.

In my opinion, The Verge has changed significantly since 2015/2016 and is now unrecognizable.

> "mainstream media refers to media organisations that are prominent in the current cultural and political environment"

So Fox News and Breitbart are mainstream media?

Fox is the most watched TV channel in the United States — hard to argue they're not an essential part of the current political environment. And Breitbart is certainly more prominent and influential than a niche site like The Verge. The latter's editors don't get White House jobs.

Fox News yes, Breitbart nope. They haven't been in the zeitgeist for years.

Its worth nothing that although there are no strict definitions of what counts as mainstream vs independent, the populist wings of both parties loosely group them in the same buckets.

A lifetime ago, I used to consider myself populist-left and since then there hasn't been much if any difference in what I consider as mainstream.

Why just distrust mainstream media? Social media and alt media are media too.

Media means to mediate, to get between and regulate discourse. In this case it’s to get between you and reality or you and others in the social media case.

The only way to escape media is to open your eyes and interact with things directly.

Additionally, it is worth noting that if one were a professional Twitter user with a discerning eye towards mainstream media, this issue may have been apparent from the outset.

10,000 impressions per tweet for an account with over ten million followers is remarkably low, and contradicts the principle of the law of large numbers.

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