Americans who get their news primarily from cable are the only people who believe that Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza, according to a new survey that examined the relationship between attitudes toward the war and news consumption habits.

The survey puts numbers on trends that have become increasingly apparent: Cable news viewers are more supportive of Israel’s war effort, less likely to think Israel is committing war crimes, and less interested in the war in general. People who get their news primarily from social media, YouTube, or podcasts, by contrast, generally side with the Palestinians, believe Israel is committing war crimes and genocide, and consider the issue of significant importance.

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  • livus
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    658 months ago

    Presumably a big chunk of the cable news demographic are watching Fox, which notoriously has been proven to leave its viewers knowing less than people who don’t watch news at all.

        • macabrett[they/them]
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          68 months ago

          Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t have assumed you were giving cover to the other networks. Sorry if I sounded hostile! Seems like we’re on the same page.

        • livus
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          28 months ago

          I only get to see it via clips on Seth Meyers but it reminds me of Idiocracy.

    • @[email protected]
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      238 months ago

      Yeah regular viewers of CNN, which runs every story about Palestine by the IDF first, are totally on the side of genocide is happening…

      • livus
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        98 months ago

        Just to be clear I’m not trying to disagree with OP’s article.

        Let alone set up some kind of binary where CNN is somehow exempt. I was just making an observation about this demographic.

        I’m not American so I don’t see these channels but their online coverage is biased AF.

        In some of the threads about Tiktok I’ve been saying that I think the generational divide is more between boomers who watch TV news cycles versus people who get more varied sources of info online. Had to watch our free-to-air TV a couple of weeks ago and the news on the Gaza Genocide was ridiculously pro IDF.

        Tagging @macabrett who made a similar point to me.

    • @Phegan
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      168 months ago

      This isn’t as much of a left / right issue as other things. Coverage of cable news across the entire political spectrum is running cover for the genocide.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        118 months ago

        Democrats and republicans are both right wing; cable news really only ranges from far right to centrist.

        There aren’t any leftists siding with genocide.

      • livus
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        18 months ago

        Yeah I agree. It’s a Boomer/GenZ thing.

  • @[email protected]
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    8 months ago

    Jesus Christ, what is CNN airing? That’s pretty much the only story in Israel/Palestine. Legitimate argument is just about whether it’s genocide, or “only” close.

    Edit: Unfortunately I can’t see the study for the exact percentage of cable news viewers. Fox, of course, is unsurprising. Fluff pieces go where important ones that are too politically inconvenient would. CNN usually likes to follow the bleeding wherever it goes.

  • @mlg
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    88 months ago

    That seems somewhat surprising, considering how much internet media post bias also exists.

    I guess cable users only stick to one or two news channels?

    • @[email protected]
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      158 months ago

      Cable news seems to be allergic to providing any kind of context no matter what the issue is, despite having 24 hours to fill. They’ll typically just loop the same 10 second clip from the event and then have 2 pundits who don’t actually know anything talk about it.

    • @[email protected]
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      8 months ago

      It’s not surprising to me. There is no more “news” anymore, it’s all opinions at this point. Usually not good opinions either, it’s all just a carefully crafted narrative or crafted to generate outrage.

      This is why I think things like Tiktok are actually useful. I don’t know another place to easily find 24/7 live video of the protests.

    • @[email protected]
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      88 months ago

      Well, if you open up Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter and co. you can see the destruction, you can see Palestinians searching through the rubble to find survivors and recover the dead. You can see children starving and you can see crying people holding the bodies of their loved ones. And then you can also see IDF soldiers bragging about the people they killed, filming themselves looting, burning down houses and desecrating peoples belongings. You can see them filming themselves torturing and abusing prisoners and laughing about it all.

      When you are exposed to the stream of more or less raw information, it doesn’t take much to understand the situation as what it is. Yes there is bias in there. But when the supposedly “good guys” from the IDF are showing themselves proudly committing atrocities, then the only people to not consider it a genocide are completely brainwashed. And unfortunately that audience exists too, cheering on the atrocities committed in their name.

    • @[email protected]
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      28 months ago

      It does say primary source of news is from cable, that doesn’t mean they don’t use these other platforms.

      And you have to believe these people’s social media is an echo chamber of their cable news

  • Zagorath
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    78 months ago

    Very interesting, if not surprising.

    I wonder if this would remain true if you controlled for other highly correlated factors like age and political affiliation. Do young leftists who watch cable news (admittedly likely a very small population) still support Israel’s genocide? What about old conservatives who use TikTok?

    While on the subject though, why the emphasis on cable news? The article made no mention of traditional free-to-air TV.

    • livus
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      138 months ago

      I think the key term is “primarily”. The only young leftists who get their news primarily from cable are basically in a household hostage situation.

    • @TropicalDingdong
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      88 months ago

      Do young leftists who watch cable news (admittedly likely a very small population) still support Israel’s genocide? What about old conservatives who use TikTok?

      I mean the sum of those two cohorts make up such a vanishingly small percentage of anyone its a rounding error. Its likely what you originally assumed, that the breakdown is going along pyschodemographic lines. Old ill informed people watch TV news, and the local stations have offloaded all that unsightly political stuff that ruffles advertiser feathers to cable news. And then your only getting the illusion of variety. Its always the same procorporate, neoliberal, neoconserivative uniparty.

        • Schadrach
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          -18 months ago

          Wait, I can both sides this!

          Israel is committing a genocide. Palestine would probably be committing a genocide if they had the capacity to do so effectively (“from the river to the sea, palestine will be free” doesn’t leave much space for Israel to, umm, exist at all?).

          • @[email protected]
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            8 months ago

            “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has never been a call for genocide. It is a call for the destruction of the Israeli state, but not the genocide of Jewish people in Palestine. It’s a call for a new state that grants freedom and equality to all, instead of an apartheid state that has been committing a slow but accelerating genocide against Palestinians.

  • @[email protected]
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    68 months ago

    you’re going to get that when

    a) western media and journalists are deathly afraid of being labeled antisemites for reporting on what the secular government of israel is doing and

    b) cable news viewers skew overwhelmingly republican and conservative who are already antimuslim and pro israel to begin with.

    these are the people who are keeping the current administration from telling it like it really is. because I honestly don’t believe that bibi would be as empowered to do what he’s been doing in gaza if the us government isn’t actively publicly condemning in plain language what has happened already.

  • @Hobbes_Dent
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    8 months ago

    What a shock. And by shock I also mean indictment of the traditional cable media.

    Edit: Fined tuned some blame.