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A comment on U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests. Parent comment

Re:U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests by tempestn on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @08:30PM (#25666032)
That is a big difference right now I think. For most of the Trump presidency, Fox basically acted as his platform, and so I doubt much would have been different over that period if Twitter and Facebook didn't exist. With overturning an election being a bridge too far for them though, without the direct platform of Twitter, I don't see things getting to this point.

One could certainly argue that a system where leaders have a direct platform to address the people is more democratic than one that relies on media gatekeepers, but it does have its downsides.

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Re:U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests by tempestn on Thursday January 07, 2021 @03:37AM (#25668710)
Could those downvoting explain what part you disagree with? I'm making a few claims here, and I'm not sure which of them are disputable/objectionable:

-for most of his presidency, Fox News has echoed President Trump's viewpoint

-therefore for most of that period I'm not confident that his Twitter access has made a huge difference to outcomes (although a number of his comments have certainly been notable).

-recently though, Fox has not been entirely on board with Trump's claims that the election was rigged. They haven't denounced them as strongly as other media, but they haven't wholly endorsed them either.

-So in recent weeks, it appears to be that Trump's direct channel to his supporters via Twitter was instrumental in leading to the current situation.

It appears the majority disagree with me, but I'm not clear where.

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Re:U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests by raydev on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @09:19PM (#25666462)
Fox has both been for and against Trump throughout his presidency. They have, however, been pro-Republican for 2 decades, which is a separate issue.

Older Trump fans are mostly getting their info through FB now. Look at FB's top shared pages/posts. The younger ones are on spread out on FB, reddit, reddit clones.

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Re:U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests by blisterpeanuts on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @09:51PM (#25666701)
There's also OAN, Epoch Times, RSBN, Parler, Newsmax, various YouTube vloggers like Millie Weaver, Anthony Brian Logan, Tim Pool, Mark Dice, etc. Quite a lot of conservative/alternative news and commentary out there. The Big Tech platforms include FB and YouTube are despised by pro-Trump folks, because of perceptions of suppression and censorship.
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