Facts and spins

Facts and spins [+ favourites]

Alright I\'m completely confused. I used to think that i had my political views all laid out and i knew what i wanted. Well silly me i forgot no one knows what they want. But the thing I really want is to know what is going on in the world. I just want the facts! I don\'t want any liberal or conservative bullshit mixed in I would just like to know the facts. CNN is liberal, FOX is conservative, BBC is a little more moderate than American news but it is still liberal. Everything i hear i know is most likely not completely true. Don\'t you just wish that there was one good part of the media that told all facts without involving the conservative or liberal spin on it? I guess it would take robots to do that though because it\'s human nature to involve different views. Then again the person who makes the media-robot would program it to say things their way. Oh well. My imagination and confusion is getting the best of me. I guess the only way to know the facts is to experience things first hand. I wasn\'t really looking for any particular response to this. I just felt like complaining.

"Don't sweat the petty things, don't pet the sweaty things."

The media is getting better not worse. The more you have conservative and liberal media organizations competing the more the 'facts' will come out. 20 years ago the media was overwhelmingly controlled by one ideology. Facts that hurt their cause were ignored. Other facts were exaggerated or made up to promote their cause or to attack their enemies. Now with Fox News, The Mainstream Media, Talk Radio, Matt Drudge and the Blogisphere we actually have facts coming out that would have been completely hidden just a few years ago.

Examples:

1. It took Matt Drudge, a nobody self-taught internet reporter, to unveil the facts about Clinton's numerous perjuries. This lead to the first Impeachment of a President in 120 years.

2. Talk Radio and the Blogs took down Dan Rather and greatly exposed the bias of CBS in its inaccurate 60 minutes hit piece on Pres. Bush.

3. Senator John Thune (Rep. - S. Dakota) claims that the 'facts' would have never reached the ears of many Dakotans had it not been for the Blogs and because of this it allowed him to win his election and defeat the sitting Minority Leader of the Democrat Party.

4. Eason Jordan was forced to resign as VP from CNN for his slanderous accusations that he made, then claimed he didn't make, at Davos because of the reporting done by the blogs.

Let me further explain the importance of #4. Here was a story that was almost exclusively driven by Blogs. When Eason resigned the LA Times had to report about his resignation - HOWEVER it was the first time they had actually reported about the scandal that lead to his resignation. Imagine that - they are ideological allies of Jordan's and probably didn't object to his comments that lead to his downfall - so they just ignored it - as did many other organizations within the mainstream media. A few years ago their silence on this matter would have saved his ass. But now the times are a changing and new media has risen to the role of what the media is supposed to be doing in the first place.

Be thankful - you have greater access to facts now than any time in the last half-century.

The unfortunate fact of the media's bias is that it is led and controlled by commerce.

And so, if you wish to know facts, ask away and whomever has an answer will answer, and explain the validity of their truth in as unbiased a view as possible.

You are likely to get more honest answers here than from your leaders for people here have nothing to lose or gain by speaking the truth, and general human instinct leads to telling the truth.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

"The unfortunate fact of the media's bias is that it is led and controlled by commerce."

Oh my Gosh that is so not true. It is driven by ideology.

If it were driven by commerce then the media wouldnt embrace global warming, second-hand smoke, defense spending cuts, etc.

Even Hollywood is not driven by commerce but predominatly by ideology. Example, G and PG rated movies gross the most profit however over the last 20 years Hollywood has continuously made more R rated movies which are the least profitable.

If the bottom-line was profit why would they continue with a busniess plan they know to be a proven failure?

Can we just establish that TV media is indeed controlled by huge multinational companies?

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"

Yes - TV media is - but the point of my response and why I am hopeful is because of the rise of the New Media. Yes the MSM (mainstream media) was owned by large multinational companies but the New Media (Talk Radio hosts and Blogs) are far more independent and the Blogs are practially exclusively independent.

Many in the MSM are worried about the rise of the Blogs because they do not like having independents playing watchdog - look at how the Conservative Wall Street Journal attacked the Blogs over the Eason affair. Look at the Washington Posts attack on Matt Drudge today. I think the Elitists are running scared now cuz the cats out of the bag. I hope so at least.

This is not a discussion about whether or not the media is biased... the author of the thread already stated that this is fact, and wants to know the truth of facts regardless of what television station or company is "ideological", or even whether any of them exist.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

The author of that thread wanted a pipe dream - to be given only unbiased facts - I hated to be so blunt and tell him that was mere wishful thinking. Instead I explained that the emergence of more ideologies into media will better serve the deliverance of facts and that competition is a good thing.

[  Edited by Xris at   ]

I did believe in Newsweek and Time - and even Yahoo News has me dissapointed.

I believe the freepress.net is pretty accurate. Blogs however are becoming the most trusted news source, that's kinda scary. We need to break up the news media back into seperate entities like they used to be, now everyone with an iterest has their hand in the pie.

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

Great article by a Brit about the power of Blogs:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1417983,00.html

"The author of that thread wanted a pipe dream - to be given only unbiased facts - I hated to be so blunt and tell him that was mere wishful thinking. Instead I explained that the emergence of more ideologies into media will better serve the deliverance of facts and that competition is a good thing."

thanks but i know it was a wishful thought. my point was to share it with you. i'm not so stupid to think that this could acually happen. as i said, it is human nature to express opinion. and yes, competition is a good thing. sometimes. i get enough competition trying to get into college and making friends and in my sport. i don't want people competing for news. there is enough competition in my day tht when i come home and turn on the news i am just bombarded with more bullshit not knowing if what i hear is what is happening. i want the FACTS not the COMPETITION . hey look...that's wishful thinking but without wishful thinking the world would be at a loss of dreams

"Don't sweat the petty things, don't pet the sweaty things."