Independent, fully independent media, is crucial for a country to not slip into authoritarianism. The temptation of starting manipulating people’s minds given the instrument will be impossible to resist.
The media should be fully independent though, including independence from capital.
Independence from what? Independent media in capitalist society is overwhelmingly dominated by private ownership. This limits us to news like Breakthrough News, but BT News is very small in comparison to massive private media. Independence in socialist countries is independence from the socialist system and from the organized working classes. There is no such thing as actual “independence” in media, because media exists within a definite context.
Even in that wonderful socialist society you’re envisioning, organized working class appoints “managers”, and those become the ruling class. In order for them not to, they need to have very little power outside of what’s necessary. Having a state media in this case becomes this power.
So, as I said in my previous comment, a media independent both from the rulling class and from capital is a necessary prerequisite or having a free country.
Managerial positions are not classes. You are confusing the Marxist understanding of class, which is based on ownership of the means of production and distribution, with a more anarchist association of class with hierarchy. Administrative labor is proletarian in nature if the administrator owns just as much as the rest of the class. Their increased power is a privledge that comes from the working class as a whole, and can be taken away in the form of recall elections. This is how it generally works in socialist countries.
Independent, fully independent media, is crucial for a country to not slip into authoritarianism. The temptation of starting manipulating people’s minds given the instrument will be impossible to resist.
The media should be fully independent though, including independence from capital.
Independence from what? Independent media in capitalist society is overwhelmingly dominated by private ownership. This limits us to news like Breakthrough News, but BT News is very small in comparison to massive private media. Independence in socialist countries is independence from the socialist system and from the organized working classes. There is no such thing as actual “independence” in media, because media exists within a definite context.
Even in that wonderful socialist society you’re envisioning, organized working class appoints “managers”, and those become the ruling class. In order for them not to, they need to have very little power outside of what’s necessary. Having a state media in this case becomes this power.
So, as I said in my previous comment, a media independent both from the rulling class and from capital is a necessary prerequisite or having a free country.
Managerial positions are not classes. You are confusing the Marxist understanding of class, which is based on ownership of the means of production and distribution, with a more anarchist association of class with hierarchy. Administrative labor is proletarian in nature if the administrator owns just as much as the rest of the class. Their increased power is a privledge that comes from the working class as a whole, and can be taken away in the form of recall elections. This is how it generally works in socialist countries.