• The news media creates reality as the people see it. People make decisions based on their perception of reality that inform their political decisions. Therefore the news media is part of democracy, and it must construct reality democratically. That means waiting until the votes are counted.

    • No - at least, not anymore. According to Reagan, news organizations are for-profit enterprises that manufacture profit for the stakeholders, by any means necessary, and they can say whatever they want.

      If you are from NZ you may have been confused with it being called “news”.

      Since this could read as snarky, I want to clarify: I am being 100% genuine. They used to be held to standards in order to be allowed to call themselves that. After that change though, while some organizations held on longer than others to some previous ideals, they were optional conventions at that point rather than mandatory.

      A lot of people in the US didn’t really understand what that change meant either.

      Anyway, there is no “must” here: a law, or standard, or convention or whatever we want to call it, without a means of enforcement is merely a suggestion.