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Comment by tomohawk | Hacker News Reader

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Worth pointing out that bribed* by PIS reporters have made the Polish "public" (in reality party owned) television into a meme by the sheer amount and ridiculousness of propaganda. What older people watched out of habit and inability to get their information online, was so bad that you could as well watch it as a monthy python episode. And one of the most shown topics was blaming literally anything on the PM that ruled 8 years ago (one who thrown then out now). They blamed from immigrants and war in Ukraine to bad weather and situation in health services. They even showed the guy with parts of his previous party logo as horns and with his face hued with red. I'm not making this stuff up.

*They were bribed with money taken from defunded children cancer treatments.

> What older people watched out of habit and inability to get their information online

The quality of "news" old people end up finding online isn't any better than on TV.

I know because unfortunately, my parents in their 60's, both with advanced degrees, are now more retarded and brainwashed than ever, by all the nasty shit that gets pushed to them on Facebook, Youtube and Tiktok.

I think those are even worse than the TV, because in the EU what gets shown on TV is at least mildly regulated, but what gets shown to you on social media isn't.

The article you've posted is engaging in mental gymnastics and misrepresentation that I've never considered possible.

To sum up the facts:

- PiS got into power several years ago

- PiS fired all the journalists of public broadcasters and replaced them with staff they selected. Major private media corporations in poland were already closely aligned with PiS, and independent media was shut down.

- As a result, for several years all media in poland was pro-government.

Regardless of your political ideals, that's not something that happens in a working democracy.

- In the most recent election, PiS lost.

- The new government fired the employees at public broadcasters that PiS had selected.

The actions of Donald Tusk's government lead to more opinions being represented in media. Which indicates that Tusk's government provides more freedom of the press than the previous one.

> Major private media corporations in poland were already closely aligned with PiS [...]

This statement is an outright lie. For example, Gazeta Wyborcza, all of Agora Media, and TVN have always been anti-PiS.

>[...] and independent media was shut down.

Can you elaborate on this?

> As a result, for several years all media in poland was pro-government.

Completely untrue.

> that's not something that happens in a working democracy.

PiS winning their second term would also be a product of a working democracy. Their certain continuation of their power grab would be a contradiction to your statement.

> Major private media corporations in poland were already closely aligned with PiS

Actually... it was quite the opposite. The vast majority of private media were not pro-PiS. The problem only concerned public media, financed from the state budget

>Remix is funded in part by the Batthyány Lajos Foundation in Budapest

Yeah that's the usual populist Fidesz propaganda then, why I'm not surprised

Edit: you can downvote me these are facts

HUF 3.5 billion from Rogán's ministry to the Lajos Batthyány Foundation, full of Fidesz members https://444.hu/2020/06/10/35-milliardot-kapott-rogan-miniszt...

Rogán's Ministry gave HUF 9.2 billion to the Lajos Batthyány Foundation in January https://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20230228_rogan_miniszterelnoki_kabin...

The Protected Society Foundation has received HUF 22 million from the Lajos Batthyány Foundation, which operates with billions of public funds, according to a report by the organisation that spreads far-right ideas https://telex.hu/belfold/2023/05/26/vedett-tarsadalom-alapit...

The Fidesz-affiliated The European Conservative aims to become a leading European news publication, and will receive the necessary support from the government through the Lajos Batthyány Foundation (BLA), worth more than HUF 1.6 billion https://index.hu/kulfold/2023/07/26/brusszel-batthyany-lajos...

etc etc etc

Call it what it is: Fidesz is an arm of the Putin regime.

No, he kicked previous party minions from Public TV station, politicians who somehow had private passes allowing them to roam free around Public Broadcaster facilities.

Previous regime in Poland was super close to becoming another Hungary with only Party aligned media being allowed to operate. They did try to shut down US owned TV station by using "anti russian media influence" law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_TVN

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