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Echo chamber

149 bytes added, 12:10, 19 March 2004
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'''Echo chamber''' is a colloquial term used to describe a group of media outlets that tend to parrot each other's uncritical reports on the views of a single source, or that otherwise relies on unquestioning repetition of official sources.
In the United States, the [[Republican Party]] uses a network of [[conservative foundations]], coordinated by the [[Philanthropy Roundtable]], to and described in [http://www.mediatransparency.org/stories/apparat.html an extensive report (March 2004) by Jerry M. Landay for Mediatransparency.org], support an echo chamber of [[think tanks]], [[industry-friendly experts]] and subsidized [[conservative media]] that systematically spread its messages throughout the political and media establishment. Typically, the message starts when conservative voices begin making an allegation (e.g., Democratic candidates are engaged in "hate-mongering" with regard to Bush). Columns start getting written on this theme, which spreads beyond the subsidized conservative media, eventually begins appearing in places like the New York Times, and becomes a talking point and "accepted fact" throughout the media.
Maureen Dowd, in a [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/opinion/15DOWD.html?ex=1079845200&en=9608024a3e06a163&ei=5070 column for the New York Times on 15 February 2004], described the deceptive condition as one where "the bogus stories ... ricocheted through an echo chamber of government and media, making it sound as if multiple, reliable sources were corroborating the same story."
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