Pretend you have one hour to convince a random normie that the mainstream media is propaganda rather than a collection of well-meaning, objective journalists who sometimes get it wrong but overall try to deliver fair and accurate reporting.
If you fail, you die.
What's your approach?
It's a stupid hypothetical for several reasons but I'm very interested in this topic and I'm curious to hear your thoughts, so I'll ask for a pass on the overly dramatic scenario.
I'm guessing the most common response will be, "It won't work no matter what you do", and fwiw I think that's correct. But for the small group who can be reasoned with, what do you think is the optimal approach?
For people "who can be reasoned with", I believe you have to undermine their trusted news sources. If they broaden their news or do research on their own they'll convince themselves.
The first step is for them to acknowledge that their news is incredibly biased.
For NPR listeners I ask them if they can think of a single person working for NPR they think even might be a closet conservative (there aren't any). In general, you can point out only 3.4% of journalists are Republicans, down from 25.7% 50 years ago. If news is not biased and is reporting fairly, why did Republican trust drop from 70% in 2016 to under 35% today?
Now they think "sure my news is biased, that's because conservatives are bad dumb people so bias is good, responsible reporting". Then you show their news is not good bias, it's garbage bias.
The Hunter Biden laptop is a good choice because it's very concise; it's not a complicated issue or set of facts. In their original reporting, did they even attempt to call the repair shop owner? Was it responsible to report it "sounds like" Russia? Did they issue a correction on their reporting? NPR is a great case study, with their original reporting being hysterical and comical in hindsight. And of course NPR in October 2022 removed this embarrassing post of them calling it a "waste of time" and "distraction", why would they delete that?
It won't change their mind because they'll refuse to look at clear evidence their news sources are garbage, but now any time they bring up anything call their news garbage if they haven't corrected the laptop story yet. Just keep bringing it up over and over.
Over time it will if you keep hammering it. Or it'll get them off your back at least.
I didn't downvote you btw idk you must have a comment stalker :P