We aren't talking about journalism here. We are explicitly talking about propaganda. Or counter-propaganda, if you prefer.
Not really. Alex Jones is speaking critically about the US system but the factual background of what he says is poor. While he do has a relatively large audience he doesn't strongly affect the political system.
To do effective propaganda you need to actually engage with the reality on the ground. Michael Hastings couldn't have written an article that forces Stanley McChrystal into resignantion without doing investigative reporting.
Much like the rest of the media. And, again, geniune news is off-topic. Although they do tend to bring into focus some subjects that the rest of the media is hesitant to cover.
Quite a lot of mainstream reporters do pick up the phone to call people to research a story. The Young Turks just seem to pick up news story and then have a few people sit together to speak about what they think about that story.
Specifically, Russian propaganda in my country (don't know if it works the same everywhere) usually markets itself as "the news for people who are not satisfied with propaganda and censorship in mainstream media". Obviously, any information inconvenient for Putin's regime is called "propaganda", and the fact that Putin's propaganda is not published in our mainstream media is called "censorship". The target group seems to be people believing in conspiracy theories, and young people.
Essentially, they are trying to role-play Assa...
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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