"Biden warns about conspiracies flourishing in the US: 'The rest of the world's wondering about us'"
The rest of the world? Hell, I'm in the US, and I wonder wtf is going on, and how are we going to fix this?
We could start by regulating the word "News" and lay down a set of criteria that has to be met. Maybe have a license specifically for News and hold the bearer of said license to a higher standard of conduct because of the influence their broadcast has. Maybe figure a way to require all information being disseminated be substantiated. It may require that sources be disclosed. We've seen how "many people have said" is a bullshit line that too many people buy into without a thought. Maybe when a show that calls itself "News" or even indirectly suggests itself to be News spreads verifiable lies, we should heavily fine and threaten the broadcast license of the outlet as well as heavily fine the person who actually spoke the lies. If it's a repeat offense, perhaps the liar should be jailed.
I know it sounds like a first amendment thing, but if yelling "fire" in a crowded theater is not protected speech on the grounds that its false and will reasonably lead to unnecessary harm, then using your national media platform to spread verifiable lies should also not be protected and subject to punishment.
I’ve paid a lot of attention to the platforms that launch and try to democratize news sourcing and they’re all defeated by the fact that citizen journalists don’t have the time or money to supply all this information. At the end of the day everyone in the information chain needs to eat. Material conditions etc.
I would personally love to spend 5-10 hours of my week attending local meetings and reporting on the occurrences. I just super do not have the time or the money