Has anyone lost faith in the media?

[FarmerChick]

true stretch Pat, big time

maybe 12 died in the tornado, until final count a few days who would truly know....10 reported deaths that the media knows of.

of course track of tornado is important

power outages lasting X days...sure within reason. power companies can only do so much to get everyone back online



to me those are facts.

not to the 'itty gritty' pretty picture everyone who love to have 'exact' but nothing is exact "until after it is calculated' and recorded.


Japan "actual facts" are what happened and been recorded...of course here on out is guestimates. geez, of course. but also with some forthought 'factual assumptions' can be thought. Who has time to count bodies right now, 10s of thousands ARE dead, how many...lets see I need the actual person body count of say 29,412 right now. Come on......... and # do to change as cleanup happens.


media is not only 'whatever' all the time....it is not just 'whatever 'we' feel like saying'. it truly does have its good points lol


as much as I hate the news (cause the news is sensational) I do listen to it and pick and choose what interests me and my area.....but at least when I do hear something about facts I can double check etc.


media is needed. Could it be better---sure, what in this world couldn't???



yes there are darn few "exact facts" in this world TIL AFTER the event...and days after to tally it all...........but to say X died, X area, etc is 'darn near a fact'

lets not stretch any media to the exact and perfect situation...it will never happen usually.


the media most times 'brings you WHAT IS HAPPENING"
not many facts can be determined until it is all over

"breaking story' means it is happening, not an exact fact, but you can bet on the fact it is happening right now.

 

[patandchickens]

Japan "actual facts" are what happened and been recorded...of course here on out is guestimates.

Then either there are next to no facts available and the media should not be reporting ANYTHING (if you want them to stick to just facts); or what they're reporting as guesstimates ARE facts so what do you have to complain about.

(Of course different peoples' guesstimates will differ... but it is really not clear to me what the difference is between "peoples' guesstimates" and "opinions and guesses rather than facts", so I am not getting what it actually IS you want them to be doing)

the media most times 'brings you WHAT IS HAPPENING"

I would disagree -- I would say that it brings you what someone chooses to tell you about what someone else thinks is happening.

Sometimes you (personally) may *agree with* those decisions about choice and source, and sometimes you may not; but it is all the same process, and there is often not much in the way of underlying stone-cold universally-agreed-important-facts behind it.

So what? That's the way it is. I just wish people would stop clamoring for "just the facts", cuz the world quite often doesn't work that way AND CANNOT POSSIBLY.

Pat

 

[Dirk Chesterfield]

I distrust all media implicitly. They all devolve into propaganda machines fueled by the entities that finance them. Spin stacked on spin laced with subliminal indoctrination. I canceled my TV service three years ago because the substance was woefully inadequate. Frankly, internet news isn't much better.

I have an RSS page that pulls around 75 different sources of news from around the world. Everywhere from Taipai Times to The Hindu , Independent Online South Africa to BBC and CBC. It is pitiful, all the news that the US press ignore on a regular basis. Many articles are front page news around the entire world and are not even mentioned in the major US media.

I don't trust any article that does not appear on at least two different news sources, not including reprints. We are being regularly fed a pablum of Lady Gaga, Dancing with the Stars, Britney Spears and Charlie Sheen. I'm totally disgusted with all of the media these days. I trust the media less than politicians because at least the politicians adjourn from the lying game for a few months a year. Media is 24/7 lying, scheming, spinning and propagandizing.

 

[moolie]

Don't hold back there Dirk, tell us what you really think

I think the popular media of today (especially tv news, the "hot media") are a product of how many in today's society can't focus on more than a 30-second sound bite and the money-making machine that popular media has become. Some people really think that Lady Gaga et al are newsworthy, because they can't/won't focus their minds on the bigger picture.

I used to be a teacher, and always taught a language arts unit every year on newspapers. How to read a newspaper, the different between a news article and an editorial, how to write a news article based on a local current event, detecting bias and objectivity etc. SO many kids had no idea even about the newspaper sections, let alone the rest. And every year I got kids hooked on reading the paper.

But no one reads newspapers anymore, and objectivity in printed media has been going by the wayside for a number of years just as in the hot media anyway. Papers don't pay to keep trained photojournalists on staff anymore and often rely on cell phone cam photos for the local stuff, and run fewer international wire stories. It's watered down something that used to be more reliable than the hot media.

I don't know if there's a solution, because now so many rely on the internet and it's just rife with bias and downright incorrect info so much of the time.

 

[patandchickens]

I don't know if there's a solution, because now so many rely on the internet and it's just rife with bias and downright incorrect info so much of the time.

It's not just the internet; IMO it started when CNN got popular enough to spawn a bunch of imitators (both domestically and worldwide).

The problem is that there is nowheres near enough "factual reportage" type news of the type that the public has traditionally been interested in to fill multiple channels of 24-hr news PLUS a gazillion internet sites all clamoring for hits so they can charge their advertisers more.

It would have been nice if things had gone down the path of broadening the definition of 'relevant news', to include for instance a lot more international non-affluent-countries coverage. Unfortunately what happened instead, predictably I suppose since it is easier and more reliable, was to just get more and more elaborate in *covering* any given "story". So instead of saying what information is available and maybe a brief reasonably-vaguely-balanced bit of commentary or what-if, each hour of coverage gives you maybe 5 minutes of information and 55 minutes of lets see how many experts and local interest stories and loudmouthed opinion moguls we can find to elaborate on that initial 5 minutes.

But it is what it is; I think it is TERRIFIC that you are encouraging kids to read the paper (even if papers aren't what they used to be, something is better than nothing!) and really I think that we just have to be as responsible as we can, as citizens, to think for ourselves and not let the media tail wag "us, the dog" too badly.

Pat

 

[morgj]

wait....... what??????????????? Someone said there is misinformation on my internetz? And when did that happen? Is there no sanctity in cyberspace anymore. Next thing you know, anybody with a computer and something to say can just type anything and pass it off as news.......

oh wait, nevermind.

 

[Icu4dzs]

My dad always use to tell me, "Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see."

Your dad was a wise teacher of his children.
So, you are losing faith in the Mainstream media...MSM. Say it isn't so, Joe!
Lets see, every day the media tells us all about Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen and forgets to tell us about the criminals in Washington, DC who are selling us down the river or forgets to tell us the names of our young sons who gave their lives for our freedom in some war, or forgets to tell us exactly the TRUTH.

Some years ago, there were rules. Remember rules? Our country lived by rules. Not necessarily laws, but rules of decent society. Remember when there were girls and boys dorms and you had to wait for your date to come down to see you? I can tell you a lot about when our society had rules and was a lot more sensible and organized. If you got "embarazada" you got Married. PERIOD. Children had the right to have parents that MADE THEM. Marriages lasted until death in many more situations than they do now. The FCC, and many other organizations had rules.

Now society has no rules. The hard core folks who have worked for so long and so hard to destroy our society have been successful in their pursuits and now you are finally aware of it in the media!

Some years ago, a MSM news figure was being interviewed and he was asked why no one believes or trusts the media any more. His answer was absolutely astute.

He said, that in the beginning of MSM there were laws not just rules, which required that anything stated by the MSM had to be the verifiable TRUTH. I will repeat that. THE VERIFIABLE TRUTH.
Furthermore, just a few years ago, that law was eliminated (no surprise there) and the media was only required to report the FACTS, not the TRUTH. This then allowed for the end of the usefulness of the media. He made the analogy this way. "If the president of the United States got in front of the people of the US and stated that you (the person the MSM guy was talking to) are a murdering pedophile thief" that your life would not be worth a plug nickel because the POTUS said it. It may NOT be the TRUTH but it is a fact that he (POTUS) said it which now makes it reportable. "Yesterday at his afternoon press conference, President Clinton stated that Meriruka is terrorist, murderer and bank robber". Now we are relatively certain she is NOT but the media can say that President Clinton said it...which then becomes a fact NOT tied to truth whereby the world now begins a man-woman hunt for Meriruka and she ends up captured by the FBI.

An excellent example of this very thing was the case of the bombing that happened at the Atlanta Olympic Games. The FBI decided that the guard (Richard Jewel) was their Prime suspect because he reported the incident and was there when it happened.
Richard Jewel's life was destroyed. He couldn't even afford to eat after this because the media reported him as the bomber of the Atlanta Olympics. He eventually died before his name was cleared and they finally found out that the bomber was Eric Rudolph (at least that is what they are saying now). So a hard working, middle class guy who happened to be doing his job got "fingered" by the FBI without any proof or substance, the MSM reported their opinion and then his life was destroyed. Did they compensate him for his lost wages and destroyed reputation and character? NOPE. It was just "too bad" for him. He died in obscurity.

So, you say to yourself, that COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE. The MSM is only occupied with honorable professional journalists who report only the TRUTH to which I say, "BUNK". They want to sell papers/magazines and get money for advertising. What makes you think that the truth is going to be served by that particular motivation? It isn't. Plain and Simple.

A movie called Arlington Road demonstrated the same thing. The media can crucify anyone with one report. It takes 10 seconds to poison a well, but 1000 years to clean it. They know this. Occasionally, they print a retraction in 6 pitch letters on the last page of the thick sunday paper which no one reads. Great! What good sports.

So, you ask yourself...as the MSM interviews the grieving widow, "Aside from THAT Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

I guess it just doesn't matter any more now does it?

 

[Dunkopf]

My dad always use to tell me, "Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see."

Your dad was a wise teacher of his children.
So, you are losing faith in the Mainstream media...MSM. Say it isn't so, Joe!
Lets see, every day the media tells us all about Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen and forgets to tell us about the criminals in Washington, DC who are selling us down the river or forgets to tell us the names of our young sons who gave their lives for our freedom in some war, or forgets to tell us exactly the TRUTH.

Some years ago, there were rules. Remember rules? Our country lived by rules. Not necessarily laws, but rules of decent society. Remember when there were girls and boys dorms and you had to wait for your date to come down to see you? I can tell you a lot about when our society had rules and was a lot more sensible and organized. If you got "embarazada" you got Married. PERIOD. Children had the right to have parents that MADE THEM. Marriages lasted until death in many more situations than they do now. The FCC, and many other organizations had rules.

Now society has no rules. The hard core folks who have worked for so long and so hard to destroy our society have been successful in their pursuits and now you are finally aware of it in the media!

Some years ago, a MSM news figure was being interviewed and he was asked why no one believes or trusts the media any more. His answer was absolutely astute.

He said, that in the beginning of MSM there were laws not just rules, which required that anything stated by the MSM had to be the verifiable TRUTH. I will repeat that. THE VERIFIABLE TRUTH.
Furthermore, just a few years ago, that law was eliminated (no surprise there) and the media was only required to report the FACTS, not the TRUTH. This then allowed for the end of the usefulness of the media. He made the analogy this way. "If the president of the United States got in front of the people of the US and stated that you (the person the MSM guy was talking to) are a murdering pedophile thief" that your life would not be worth a plug nickel because the POTUS said it. It may NOT be the TRUTH but it is a fact that he (POTUS) said it which now makes it reportable. "Yesterday at his afternoon press conference, President Clinton stated that Meriruka is terrorist, murderer and bank robber". Now we are relatively certain she is NOT but the media can say that President Clinton said it...which then becomes a fact NOT tied to truth whereby the world now begins a man-woman hunt for Meriruka and she ends up captured by the FBI.

An excellent example of this very thing was the case of the bombing that happened at the Atlanta Olympic Games. The FBI decided that the guard (Richard Jewel) was their Prime suspect because he reported the incident and was there when it happened.
Richard Jewel's life was destroyed. He couldn't even afford to eat after this because the media reported him as the bomber of the Atlanta Olympics. He eventually died before his name was cleared and they finally found out that the bomber was Eric Rudolph (at least that is what they are saying now). So a hard working, middle class guy who happened to be doing his job got "fingered" by the FBI without any proof or substance, the MSM reported their opinion and then his life was destroyed. Did they compensate him for his lost wages and destroyed reputation and character? NOPE. It was just "too bad" for him. He died in obscurity.

So, you say to yourself, that COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE. The MSM is only occupied with honorable professional journalists who report only the TRUTH to which I say, "BUNK". They want to sell papers/magazines and get money for advertising. What makes you think that the truth is going to be served by that particular motivation? It isn't. Plain and Simple.

A movie called Arlington Road demonstrated the same thing. The media can crucify anyone with one report. It takes 10 seconds to poison a well, but 1000 years to clean it. They know this. Occasionally, they print a retraction in 6 pitch letters on the last page of the thick sunday paper which no one reads. Great! What good sports.

So, you ask yourself...as the MSM interviews the grieving widow, "Aside from THAT Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

I guess it just doesn't matter any more now does it?

Not bad. I don't quite understand why you specify the MSM though. The stuff I have seen and heard on the allegedly not MSM station is a lot worse than what I have ever heard on the MSM. The stuff you read on some of the websites that are referred to on this forum on a regular basis is a total joke. So lets be honest and just say THE MEDIA.

 

[Mackay]

General Electric owns 49% of NBC,

General Electric builds nuclear reactors

They build the reactors that went down in Japan

Do you think NBC will be pro or against nuclear Developement?

Will you rely on them to report the truth on anything nuclear?

GE is on line to build two reactors in Texas on the gulf coast,
in hurricain regions..

 

[MysticScorpio82]

Media is changing. Some for the good and some for the bad. People are used to getting their media from one or two sources. Now it is available anywhere and anytime.

Media is a business and they make their money on ratings. Can a media source who derives it income from Monstano report against it? Some will. Many wont.

Media isn't just media...it is also PR firms, politicians and lawyers.

So what do you do? Try to find your own sources rather than letting some anchor spoon feed you. If you read an article, periodically CHECK THE SOURCE MATERIAL. Learn to ferret out reality from hype. Look for agendas behind the reporting.
Example, loads of article came out over the last few months reporting that high fructose corn syrup is "the same" as sugar. Many of the stories contained almost word for word sentences from a PR release by the corn refiners association.

I completely agree with everything you said, esspecially the bolded.