On Tue, 4 May 2004 14:50:33 +1000, Andrew Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think most of us wordly-wise enough to take most of > our media with a good dash of salt. Anyway, we all tend > to believe what we like and not believe what we don't, > in regard to opinions/rumours/slants expressed in the press. > > My real concern is when facts are wrong, or, as you point > out, things are just never reported. Do you think much of > the media, be it Arab, American, Indian etc, actually lies > about facts? Is there some source of great truth we can check > them against, and where is it?
I know I take my media with a double chaser, no salt and an aspirin. Since high school if I get interested in something I try to read several opposing viewpoints and try to understand who is more correct and why. Most media reports now are simply what the spokesperson said until someone grabs an interesting story and slant and runs with it and reporters like a flock of blackbirds all take off after. The media does not lie very often, not nearly as often as the people they report on or their spokesmen do. �The problem with the media is that they will just print someone in authority's lie and rarely dig deeper. Damn if I know a source of great truth, I do try to determine what is in the interest of the publication to report. TV is easiest, whatever gets the most attention to get more people watching to sell more commercial product. �Nearly all of American media is owned by large corporations now so whatever is not in large corporate interests is harder to find. � It is much more important to note that �most editors and publishers have a corporate bias than that most reporters have a human interest bias. Reporters report on the stories that editors and publishers give them and then they pass through the editor again. �If you watch news on CNN or the major networks for an hour or so you can detect that they have a slight agenda in favor of people which might be called a liberal agenda, if you watch Fox for five minutes you see an obvious agenda in favor of simple flag-waving solutions from "private enterprise" with good guys and bad guys. �But it isn't dull. the biggest problem is the never reported stories. �My most frustrating "never reported" story now, Bush aides scrubbed his military records to hide the fact he was administratively punished. The facts are right there in the paperwork and reporters can't read, and can't add, and can't subtract dates, or at least can't get it published. �I think the story maybe needs something more to it than it is a federal crime. �Perhaps a major credible figure with knowledge to go with the paperwork. The Texas WMD case and the Tiger Force Vietnam atrocities made the back pages of some papers, that is more than this story. � I decided a goal for me now is to work for the media for a closer look at the beast. #1 on google for liberal news _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
