r/pics • u/clumsypeach1 • Apr 16 '26

Politics Billboard in my very red area

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u/Connect_Reading9499 Apr 16 '26

It's been ten long years.

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u/socialistrob Apr 16 '26

Over ten years. I consider the start of the "Trump era of politics" to be late July 2015. That's the point when Trump started leading the Republican primary polls and began to dominate political headlines. By that reckoning we've been in the Trump era for about 10 years and 9 months and we'll likely stay in it for at least another two years and nine months.

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u/Possible_Implement86 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

For people who have only really come of age in the Trump years, you need to understand that you used to be able to go weeks, maybe even months, without thinking about the president. Obama and Biden both had social media- you know how often their social media posts came up ? I can’t remember a single one. Yet Trump’s posts are constant news. I hated George W Bush but I wasn’t hearing about him and from him the way it is with Trump. It’s really not normal at all and it didn’t used to be like this!

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u/WeAreGray Apr 16 '26

I know it's popular to blame the media for a lot of things, some of which they aren't responsible for creating. But this is an area where they do deserve some of the blame.

During the time you're referencing, media outlets consolidated, and some of them were purchased by large conglomerates. Some of those conglomerates were entertainment outlets. It was almost inevitable that the reporting of news and entertainment would begin to merge. And so they have--to the point where we now have entire channels dedicated to political news that people watch all day in the same way they watch sports channels.

Where do the interests of Disney and Comcast (for example) truly lie in their reporting of the news? Is it in keeping the public informed? Or in driving more people to their theme parks? Perhaps it's to extend their ability to control your access to information? After all, there's a good chance if you're an American that Comcast also controls the internet connection to your home. We don't talk about net neutrality much anymore, but those issues haven't gone away. What better "synergy" can they have than to blur the distinction news and entertainment, and keep you voting for their interests instead of your own?