Is it just me, or has online commentary taken a decidedly-right leaning shift over the last few years?

I'm talking about posts on social media, message boards, user comments on YouTube/local news sites/various blogs, even non-political blogs.

This is not something I've followed precisely, just a general trend I've noticed. Here's an example from PFT, covering Eric Reid's free agency situation (Eric Reid was one of the initial players to join Colin Kaepernick in his Anthem protests.) http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/03/16/eric-reid-sees-whats-happening-around-him/#comments

Now, obviously PFT is a football site. It's part of the NBC family and its main editor Florio (not the author of this particular post) never struck me as a conservative guy. I read the first few dozen comments and nearly all of them were lined up against Reid. The general consensus is, you made your bed, now lie in it. I saw one dissenting opinion and it's not even clear what the point he was trying to make or whether he was being serious or facetious.

Has anyone else noticed this trend? I've used the internet a long time, and things were not always like this. Social media was widely credited as helping Obama win way back in 2008, and I remember the general commentary being much different (more often in line with leftist views) back then. Fast forward to the 2016 election season, and it was Trump that dominated online polls and engagement stats.

I should add that I'm not even talking about situations where my web history/social media activity could tailor results to my preference. I'm talking about sites and communities that are generally not partisan in nature. Of course you're going to get a different type of commentary on CNN compared to Fox News. But you would think the local news sites would have a more equal representation.

Its taken this long for the knuckle draggers to learn to use the interwebs

Maybe so, in some cases. This doesn't explain why Trump is doing so well with Gen-Z though (post-Millennials): https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/poll-trump-dominates-with-generation-z/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-...m=.ccd22e0bbcc8

not really.

if you broke it down by race, then sure, maybe you have a point. but those demographics are pretty much in line with what we see today.

lol, sure hope this gave you the superiority ego jolt you obviously needed today.

Your WP article is behind a pay wall, unfortunately.

The Lifezette piece does go into demographics some though.

dude that crap is so annoying. gotta subscribe just for some damn news.

thats why i go to yahoo. they post from all the major outlets with no block.

but anyway, if you break it down by demographic, there really isn't a whole lot of change from what we see currently.

also, it depends on where you go local.

i'm pretty sure if you get a news outlet from a more rural area, the comment section will have a different vibe than from the city.

and besides, just like this board, sports sites and sports message boards are dominated by white dudes. and we're already well aware of how that demographic typically breaks down politically.

on the bmw boards, its super conservative over there, not surprising since it's pretty much all white dudes.

Use incognito mode.

Care to elaborate who you are speaking of?

Talk about fake news. Then the likes of you throw out this BS. LOL

I do know that social media is significantly more engineered by larger parties than it was in 2008 and even 2012. Whether this manifests itself by bots, or by foreign agents acting to disrupt an election, either way we cannot always operate under the assumption that the person we see posting is who they say they are.

As for local broadcast, 40% of local broadcast operates under one company, Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair has been accused of taking a right leaning bias approach to its news rooms going as far back as the Iraq invasion.

Regarding local broadcasts: I was not referring to the broadcasts (news articles) themselves, which can vary massively in bias depending on the station, reporter, etc. I was referring to the people who leave comments on such sites. A lot of them sound very similar to people who leave comments on clearly conservative/right-wing sites. Maybe it is the same people doing both. I don't really know.

It's also people who I personally know (e.g. on Facebook), and who I am sure are not bots. I grew up in conservative area, which partially explains this. However, I get the sense that a lot of the people I've known over the years are fed up. They're tired of being told how they should speak, they're tired of being told how they should think, and they're just plain tired of liberals.

Again-- trends/generalities. They don't apply to everyone, but they apply to quite a few, and some of them are quite vocal. Sometimes I'm shocked by what people write on their personal Facebook accounts.

I hear ya. Well not on the yahoo part, but the annoying pay wall thing (though gage's suggestion to try incognito mode did work.)

I rarely turn off ad blocker unless I really want to see something, and won't pay just to access a web page. In nearly all cases, you can just search again and pull up something similar for free.

would that mean that 60% is left leaning....

If the mentality is black vs. white, us vs. them then I'd say that's the only way to take it. I'd argue it's more likely that the remainder are much more objective, as the role of local news is to relay local news. National news is much easier to politicize because of the sheer volume of stories. The allegations against Sinclair group are all national news in nature, and speak to a specific political position.

No. Liberals have been ruining the Internet since Al Gore invented it.

Sinclair also broadcasted Air America, which was a total left leaning station. Air America went bankrupt as they couldn't get enough listeners to sell advertising. The free market got rid of it, and Sinclair had to find something else to air. Now my area gets fox sports news, and I listen to Clay Travis every morning. Here's to the First Amendment and boobs!!!

Why yes it did , thanks ;}

but youre making an assumption of white dudes are Trump supporters. While there are many who are not. I am sure I will struggle to say this in a way that makes sense, but, The white group is way more diversified in its varyin support than say the black group. The black group is pretty close to unaanimous in being against Trump. But within the white group it is pretty well divided between those who like hm and those who dont. I would say that there may be a slight edge of those who do. Ok , I got a headache now.

Here is the truth, you can't call it "superiority ego" thing or bag on lib posters for acting like elitist for being smarter than their GOPer counterparts... It's an education thing. It's a social choices thing. In some cases it's even a genetics thing. Call it what it is.

im only going off what the election results said.

And that attitude right there is why Trump won in a landslide.
Keep up the good work.

and what did election results say, did Trump get 100% of the white male vote?

and keep in mind not even 50% of population votes

did i ever claim that 100% of whites voted for trump?

or did i say that the demographic numbers didn't change? seriously, you came at me with a false narrative based on something i never said to begin with, so i dunno what sort of conversation you expected to have.

Link? My understanding is Sinclair is the stations and air America was radio. Air America wiki page didn't seem to mention Sinclair either...

There was a question mark on the end of what I said . I honestly dont know what the exact numbers were, I was assuming by your statement that you knew those numbers.

Maybe I was misreading your original statement . but it felt like you were basically putting all white males as Trump supporters because all trunp supporters(well huge majority) are white males

I guess I just didnt want to be racially profiled man!!, LOL

You mean my honesty caused Trump to win? I doubt that. It had much more to do with YOUR VOTE.

Tell me, what is the sound of one splinterless hand clapping?

no, i could not possibly state that, especially since we have white males on this board who despise trump. there's no situation in which i could ever make that claim.

I got ya brother

Really? lol

If that's the best you can do, just toss the towel in and call it a day.

Half males.

The neutered male is fascinated by the manhood of others... - confuseUs

[quote=40YEARSWAITING]Half males.

I love ya 40

Bro, he's baiting you into a ban.

You're right. It looks like I confused sinclair with clear channel, as sinclair owns both of the talk stations in my area. They might have both been carrying clear channel radio at the time (we are talking 10 years ago). I rather liked it, as one station had Rush, while the other had Tammy Bruce.

Now, if Sinclair is taking over as many stations as they are, that's another free market move. You don't keep radio stations long if you don't have programming people want to hear.

Telecommunications is hardly a market dictated by free enterprise.

How do you figure that? If people don't listen to a program, they can't sell advertising. No advertising, no money, no show. That's free market results. Limbaugh didn't get rich because people don't like his show.