Do we really live in a post-truth world? Are we are all in now in social media bubbles?

[Werthead]

Just now, Commodore said:

go the BBC is controlled by government ministers that appoint the Board?

Government ministers appoint the board and then step back from any direct say over the board. There are rules over who can be appointed to the board and the requirements for political impartiality, and traditionally editorial independence of actual programme-making has been preserved.

It's a system that's ripe for abuse, which makes it all the more bizarre that generally it hasn't been (although the process has been - more or less - transparent). But the feeling now is that the government has had too much of a say in how the BBC uses its money, such as using the licence fee to fund other projects, which has been highly problematic. The latest charter renewal also had a lot of editorial discussions by the government in the run-up to its announcement, which was really not its job, and those were pulled before the final consultations.

[Yukle]

In Australia media is quite limited. For instance, it's illegal to film the Senate in session, or to film what happens in refugee prisons.

But Australia's media is mostly owned by News Corp, so it's very conservative, even if the general populace isn't. The Herald Sun is the highest selling newspaper daily and it runs a story once a week on the evils of Victoria's progressive government, or a story about the glory of the now-deposed former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

But this isn't unique to Australia - I think we've always had confirmation bias as a people. There's no lack of discourse, but try as you might, you cannot convince somebody who believes global warming is a myth that it's real. People believe they can choose their own facts.

The most important rule of life is:

You are not entitled to your opinion. You must earn it.

[Crazydog7]

In this day and age we unfortunately not only pick the news presenters that best reflect our values we often pick the facts that best represent our values.  I know it has become fashionable to say that both extremes are equally crazy but the difference is that the extreme right has a real potential to dictate policy for the next 8 years, the extreme left (which in any other country would just be a center right party) does not.