the only media outlet I trust right now is OANN for news

It used to be that reporters had to independently corroborate any story with two, independent witnesses for it to even move forward. This is a Biblical concept, stated at least eight times in both the Old and New Testaments. Perhaps the most relevant:

"A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed." - Deuteronomy, 19:15

Now, even a hint or a whisper is enough to gain headline status.

I learned my lesson early. When I was in med school, a famous overweight musician came to our institution for what was one of the first gastric bypass operations. The story made Time magazine and every word in the story was inaccurate. For the first time, I asked myself, "how about all the other stories, whose details I have no personal knowledge of, how accurate are they?"

The last time I think the “news” was reported without a bias was when Huntley and Brinkley were reporting the war in Vietnam.

Everything since then seems to be slanted with a subliminal agenda.

“You should think this way.....”

I think we get flashes of truth like flashes of lightening. It is difficult however to recognize the flash for what it is.

Many of us are experts in very specific areas. Falsehoods there are easily seen. This is where the brothers here can assist the rest of us by exposing the simple truths and lies.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
The last time I think the “news” was reported without a bias was when Huntley and Brinkley were reporting the war in Vietnam.

Everything since then seems to be slanted with a subliminal agenda.

“You should think this way.....”

The point though, beyond the media's obvious biases, is that even stories that are just "factual" get it nearly completely wrong pretty much every time.

I personally haven't watched "the news" on TV since somewhere around 2007...Dubyuh's last term. I haven't read a newspaper since probably 2002-ish, save for just a few times at work in the last 15 years when the WSJ was free in the lobby of the hotel when leaving from an overnight.

I have said for YEARS that "Journalism" is now a defunct, dead art in this country. There as absolutely NOTHING about it that is "objective" and "seeking the truth"...pure Op-Ed 25/8. We might as well just go ahead and rename our "information sources" and "thought police bureaus" Pravda and TASS.

Michael Crichton had this to say about journalists and why we react or rather don't react. But this was from the 1990's and I think their game may be up with large numbers of us.


"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know."
— Michael Crichton

Here is what we need, andI wont say no!

I’m intimately familiar with a few things. Far to often I find the media patently wrong or misleading. I have to question everything they produce now as I have no faith in the reporting.

quote:

Originally posted by TomV:
We have an online "newspaper" here that has local stuff, crime report, traffic accidents and such.

At the end of each story it lists the author and their background. One reporter's degree is listed as "Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction".

I missed this earlier. Creative Nonfiction

That is more enigmatic and fascinating than Endeavor to persevere.

I was in public life for many years and dealt directly with the media on many occasions. My wife and I often watched news accounts of incidents where I had been present, in many cases incidents that I investigated. My comment was often that the news report must have been of something else, it certainly was not the case that I investigated.

I made attempts to correct editors after they got stories wrong. That is when I began to realize that editors can be the most obtuse, dishonest, agenda driven, vindictive scumbags I had ever encountered, including the ones I put in jail. It is heartbreaking that young idealistic reporters who dream of being real journalists are crushed or corrupted by this agenda driven system. The editors want scalps. They savor reporting police brutality, but no one reports what my police chief group referred to as "media brutality". I was cautioned once that you don't take on people who buy ink by the barrel and newsprint by the trainload. Therein lies the problem-no one holds them accountable. Until President Trump came along, that is, and they despise him for it.

Interesting read:
The Liberal Media Industrial Complex by Mark Dice.
https://www.amazon.com/Liberal...id=1598640405&sr=8-1

“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.”

Gen. William T. Sherman

The days of simply reporting the news have been replaced by media anchors and field reporters giving their opinions on events. This occurs often within minutes of an occurrence and often before authentication of facts.

When the actual facts do come out, the media fails to correct itself. The initial inaccurate/false report becomes the only 'fact'.

We see this occurring on internet forums as well. Everybody becomes an expert with their analysis of a grainy video or 200 word news article. Few are willing to wait for the authentication of the facts.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:
Confirmation bias. Select and process data in a way that supports the picture you already believe, and/or the picture you want others to believe. IE, discard any contradictory data.

Reminds me of Dan Rather presenting documents to demean Bush. IIRC, when the docs were proven to be fake, Rather said along the lines "so the docs are fake, my story is still true".

I might add "Yellow Journalism" in addition to confirmation bias.

The famous line from Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst "you furnish the pictures, I will furnish the war". Journalism has again (still?) degraded to sensationalism based on often incomplete, inaccurate, and/or totally falsified data.

The media's purpose is not to inform, it is to influence (brainwash?) for their own gain. And I am disturbed at people I know who swallow the swill.

And as the post above notes, when/if more complete/correct info comes out, the media is "ho-hum" and people still believe and promote the lie.

Harvard Business Review. Why the News is not the Truth

While this article is about 25 years old (and long) it still serves as an excellent explanation as to why media should not be trusted and that we as citizens should exercise great care in believing what we are told no matter the source.


Silent

I live in a city/cities where there is no newspaper. But we do have 3 untruthful TV stations. They're all lying bastards. Even the weather reports are fiction. I believe none of what they try to tell me. So now I'm at the unhappy position where the TV is off, mostly. I have maybe 100 TV channels and none are worth watching, except maybe weather radar. Its Friday night and I refuse to watch Pro Football, or any other sport event. You do as you please and I will too.

I use to watch both the National and local 5:00 News. About a year ago I stopped watching any National or Cable News. Ever since the Minneapolis event I have stopped watching all News. I am just done with the the bullshit.

^^^^^ I can relate to that. The only tv channel I like and will watch is RFD-TV. If you're not familar with it, they feature agriculture, farming, food production, animal stuff, etc etc etc.

At least I find it interesting and there's no bullshit.