"Perception of Bias"

[FCD]

Billionaire Jeff Bezos said this week that newspapers endorsing presidential candidates creates a..."perception of bias".  I kind of laughed when I read this!

Perception of Bias

The notion that objective "journalism" exists at all in today's MSM is more than a joke.  In fact, "news" outlets have become so associated with yellow journalism today that a new outlet refusing to endorse a political candidate is almost an endorsement in itself.  In the case of the current election, a refusal to endorse Harris is an endorsement for Trump, and illustrates just how bad Harris is as a choice.

I sincerely hope that multiple "news" empires get crushed in the coming years for the partisan garbage they spew every day. 

Biased journalism is nothing new.  I can remember as a kid wanting to have my parents switch newspapers because a competing paper had fun puzzles in it.  My parents refused because that paper leaned heavily in one direction politically and they wanted to remain neutral.  The big difference today is, back then the MSM used to couch their 'news' as objective and hide their parisanship behind clever wording so as to appear to be neutral.  Today, there is no such effort to cloak MSM bias.  They just come right out and tell you their biases.

I guess on a more mature level it surprises me how many people are willing to accept bias news.  I want my news to reflect the realities of the world around me, and I categorically reject the notion of living in an echo chamber where everyone marches in lock-step.

Thoughts?

[Ksihkehe]

There's talk now of the free licenses that the networks have been using for politically biased reporting. It adds some flavor to the 60 Minutes thread you did too. I'll be surprised if it goes much beyond talk, but pleasantly surprised.

I think the Bezos deal is that he feels safe to violate the unspoken rules of the game, because he's seeing the writing on the wall.

One month before the pandemic economic meltdown Bezos happened to have a party and the Fed Chair happened to be there. I'm willing to bet the attendees repositioned themselves in the markets in those 30 days. Haven't checked them all, but is it even plausible they aren't telling the movers and shakers when they plan to pull the plug? They coordinate things with hedge funds now, use them as defacto government agencies and let them rule the markets like a prison gang. The SEC is just their enforcers.

If Bezos isn't endorsing, it's not purely on principles... though it is an objectively principled decision. Makes it convenient to hide behind.

[FCD]

There's talk now of the free licenses that the networks have been using for politically biased reporting. It adds some flavor to the 60 Minutes thread you did too. I'll be surprised if it goes much beyond talk, but pleasantly surprised.

I think the Bezos deal is that he feels safe to violate the unspoken rules of the game, because he's seeing the writing on the wall.

One month before the pandemic economic meltdown Bezos happened to have a party and the Fed Chair happened to be there. I'm willing to be the attendees repositioned themselves in the markets in those 30 days. Haven't checked them all, but is it even plausible they aren't telling the movers and shakers when they plan to pull the plug? They coordinate things with hedge funds now, use them as defacto government agencies and let them rule the markets like a prison gang. The SEC is just their enforcers.

If Bezos isn't endorsing, it's not purely on principles... though it is an objectively principled decision. Makes it convenient to hide behind.

Yeah, the level of 'insider' corruption in this country is just staggering!

And you hit the nail on the head with the hedge fund assessment.  Hedge funds and playing the shorts (which the hedge funds do in spades) is really telling.  It's hard to make good things happen, but it's easy to make bad things happen (intentionally), and when you're playing the shorts it's the bad things happening which make you a winner...because people are in essence betting on other people losing.  When other people lose, they win.  That's exactly how Soros got all his money, and Blackrock, and so many others.

I've long said short selling and derivatives are fundamentally wrong and the only reason they're legal is because most people don't understand them.  The market, heck fiat money for that matter (what the market trades on), is built on trust.  Derivative packaging and short selling undermines this trust.  In fact, these things are in direct opposition to market trust.  ('Trust' that people will do the right thing, not evil).

[Ksihkehe]

Update: Bezos sells another 3 billion in stock, with over 13 billion already sold in 2024.

Jeff Bezos unloads $3B worth of Amazon stock in latest sale

It's not even a big percentage of his shares, but it's taking billions out of the market. They've been milking the cow hard. Buffett is sitting on heaps of cash even though interest is eating at it worse than any other time in recent history. He's been selling Bank of America for a while.

[FCD]

Update: Bezos sells another 3 billion in stock, with over 13 billion already sold in 2024.

Jeff Bezos unloads $3B worth of Amazon stock in latest sale

It's not even a big percentage of his shares, but it's taking billions out of the market. They've been milking the cow hard. Buffett is sitting on heaps of cash even though interest is eating at it worse than any other time in recent history. He's been selling Bank of America for a while.

There used to be a time when one "million" was a big deal.  After you start tacking on zeros people stop caring.  But, as you point out; this is all real, and so are the zeros.