The purchase of The Baltimore Sun is further proof that conservative billionaires understand the power of media control. Why don’t their liberal counterparts get it?

You have no doubt seen the incredibly depressing news about the incredibly depressing purchase of The Baltimore Sun by the incredibly depressing David Smith, chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the right-wing media empire best known for gobbling up local television news operations and forcing local anchors to spout toxic Big Brother gibberish like this.

The Sun was once a great newspaper. I remember reading, once upon a time, that it had sprung more foreign correspondents into action across the planet than any American newspaper save The New York Times and The Washington Post. It had eight foreign bureaus at one point, all of which were shuttered by the Tribune Company by 2006. But the Sun’s real triumphs came in covering its gritty, organic city. And even well after its glory days, it still won Pulitzers—as recently as 2020, for taking down corrupt Mayor Catherine Pugh, who served a stretch in prison thanks to the paper.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    lying about the facts of the matter

    You mean like claiming that someone with a net “worth” of over a billion isn’t a billionaire, setting arbitrary conditions on accepting reality?

    Observing the facts is not bootlicking

    Twisting them into a pretzel to deny that a billionaire is a billionaire is awfully close, though.

    Sorry that makes you uncomfortable, but grow the fuck up.

    You should take your own advice and stop inventing alternative definitions for clearly defined words such as “billionaire”, “facts”, “reality” and “lying”.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
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      9 months ago

      Net worth of an artist ≠ net worth of a real estate mogul. Unlike the real estate mogul, she can’t just sell off her voice and personality, the core of her “value.” It’s not my problem you don’t like those facts.

      If you want to be mad at her for being wealthy, for flying on private jets or whatever, fine. I’m not her fan. I don’t give a fuck. But don’t go tilting at windmills over her being a billionaire, when that label is applied artificially.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Net worth of an artist ≠ net worth of a real estate mogul

        Whether you’re in real estate, the arts or any other business, you don’t become a billionaire without stepping on a lot of people and being extremely exploitative.

        It’s such an absurdly large amount of hoarded treasure, no matter how much you try to play it off as not counting when you sing or whatever nonsense you’ve convinced yourself of.

        she can’t just sell off her voice and personality, the core of her “value.”

        That she can’t get rid of a couple of her many sources of income doesn’t make her any less of a billionaire

        It’s not my problem you don’t like those facts.

        You haven’t argued from fact at any point, only your completely baseless opinion that a billionaire who sings isn’t really a billionaire.

        I don’t give a fuck

        Could have fooled me!

        being a billionaire, when that label is applied artificially.

        No, that “label” describes anyone with a net “worth” of a billion or more, regardless of sources of income. That’s what the word FACTUALLY means, no matter how little you like that fact.