Thread by @GregoryMcKelvey

For anyone curious about my stance that local media creates its headlines in order to inflame the racists trolls that they know live in their comment sections. Local news literally plays to the worst elements of our society in order to profit from racism and islamaphobia.

And I will say that I am mostly talking about local TV news however print is not exempt. The entire point of these headlines is to get more people to share, click, and comment which increases ad revenue.

Instead of achieving those goals by promoting engaging journalism, they choose the lazy way which is to get racists to do their promotional work for them.

This has an enormous impact on our society and on local communities and polarizes the population to a dangerous level. It’s also no coincidence that the mayor of Portland chose one of these culprits to head his communications.

I am not defending this man who allegedly committed a serious crime. I am saying that lots of people commit crimes in society but had this persons religious affiliations not had the ability to inflame the worst elements of our society, it would have never been in the news.

Anyways, as we all fret at the loss of good journalists across the field, we have to lay at least some of the blame on those who have chosen to take this route.

I don’t have the answers on how to make journalism and reporting more viable but this ain’t it.

I also want to point out that there are great people working for these local stations including this one but...

Further, attacks on the free press are at an all time high, and have a chilling impact on our society which makes the timing of these criticisms inconvenient for many reasons but we can’t let the exploitation and profiting of racism go unchallenged.

And shame on you @KATUNews for this headline. And yes, they are a Sinclair station.