Journal eglamkowski's Journal: pick-a-bias! 12
I was going to write today about how journalists always try to tell you not just the news, but how you're supposed to feel about it as well, and maybe I'll do that tomorrow, but then I saw that it's four years since Baghdad fell and I saw the headlines and I'm going to write about that instead.
So we're four years in Iraq. A sampling of headlines from news.google.com:
Thousands mark Saddam's fall
Shiite leader calls for Iraqis to join militia
Timeline: Four years of turmoil
Iraqis call for US forces to leave
Iraqis march in honor of Baghdad's fall
Rally marks anniversary of Baghdad's fall
Sadr-Backed Protests Urge US to Quit Iraq
Iraqis rally in Shiite holy cities for anti-American march
Shiite Cleric Urges Fight Against US
Just imagine a small town person who doesn't have internet access and only reads one or two newspapers. Obviously their view of Iraq would be severely distorted according to which of the headlines above he got. Some of them don't have any suggestion of anti-US sentiment, others have it but it would seem mild or harmless, others make it seem extremely virulent. Frankly, given the current state of what passes for journalism these days, and just how many "reporters" seem to just outright lie and make stuff up, and/or don't bother to do any fact checking (is there any meaningful difference between a reporter intentionally not bothering to fact check and their just outright lying?), I don't know what to believe any more. I don't even feel comfortable with the idea that the truth lies somewhere in between. I just don't know any more.
What do you do for news when ALL of the media outlets can no longer be trusted?
Or do you just give up on the news completely and glide through life blissfully unaware of anything outside your job and family?
A thought (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I have prejudices.
Interpolate (Score:2)
If I really want to try to extract the Truth from news, the first thing I try to do is remind myself that it's not actually possible.
After that, I read several sources with a variety of known or presumed biases, and try to separate the claimed facts from spin in each. This ideally leaves me with a small pool of generally-agreed facts - which I consider fairly reliable - and a mess of opinions. I then sort of take an unscien
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The rest of the time I am a much more passive (if skeptical) news consumer... although I a
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I might have kept in the habit of reading their website, but that's completely excerable. There's only so many times I'm willing to tell them I'm a 106-year-old woman from Antelope in order to see the second page of an article.
Re: (Score:2)
Easy (Score:2)
Actually I read the Wall Street Journal [slashdot.org]. They get things right almost all the time because they follow the time honored tradition of "following the money" because that is what greedy people do.
jason
(partly in jest..... but not quite).
Re: (Score:2)
Jason