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Comment by blell | Hacker News Reader

> The real risk for American broadcasters is not that dissent will be visible. It is that audiences will start assuming anything they do not show is being hidden

Kinda daft not to assume this has been the case for a long time already

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The opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics included a celebration of the National Health Service, which got mysteriously cut from the broadcast in the US, at a time when there was a bunch of fuss over Obamacare that had come into effect a year or two before.

Was hard not to imagine that was a deliberate choice.

Drug companies and insurers are big advertisers.

That's insane.

look at the Fortune 500, and notice how many of them are top 10, or top 50

many of the US' problems can be figured out simply by looking at this list

Well the "no censorship!"-crowd in rhe US has been strangly focused on the censorship of racists, bigots and nazis. I don't think they consider censorship that benefits the Neo-feudalist lords as censorship.

The naive part of me these past years was thinking that calling out contradictions would bring shame and reflection to these people.

It's still important to call them out for all the onlookers, but he goal in suc discussions should not be to try and convince the other party in these cases. They at best don't care and are going all on vibes, and at worst knowingly contradict because their goal is also onlookers.

Even if a large conspiracy isn't involved, I believe that biases in worldview can contribute to these effects. However, I still think it's important to inform people of things they might be missing and hold media accountable for their choices, regardless of whether those choices are random or unknowingly biasedWe need to be careful not to fall into the allure of "fake media" in our outrage, as this could ultimately benefit populists in the long run.

They might have just thought it a bit boring?

You can check it out - the first couple of minutes here of people in nurse costumes standing by beds and moving around a bit. Not really must see stuff. https://youtu.be/ReJjvlipXpM

I’m in the US and I saw it and recall thinking it was a strange thing to specifically celebrate in the Olympic opening ceremonies.

But to each their own.

Look again at the insurmountable hill that is the US's potential transition to a fully public healthcare system, and consider that celebrating having done that elsewhere might be valid.

Strange hill to celebrate climbing if the peak is a healthcare system widely regarded both inside and outside the UK as mediocre at best.

Could be worse, at least they don't have to choose between financial ruin or a healthy life.

The NHS is the UK's one and only True and Universal Religion, and it's quintessentially british, like Mr Bean, crumpets and the queen.

Not celebrating the NHS during the London Olympics opening is akin to blasphemy.

Maybe it was cut for some international broadcasts because not everyone will understand.

> audiences will start assuming anything they do not show is being hidden

Will they? Possibly a portion of them, but I doubt they'll be the majority.

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