Factual News / Media Bias

[Dhfranklin94]

So, I have gotten to the point that it is nearly impossible to tolerate watching the national news. They should call it something else because it is not the factual news. I started watching the ABC National news tonight but after several minutes I had to turn the channel. It is the same thing with them every night. I want to hear the factual news so I can make my own opinion on the topics reported on but all I keep hearing is opinions and the news anchors slant or beliefs on the topics. I then turned the channel to the CBS National news and got the same thing. At least I lasted longer on CBS than ABC. Lol. The guy on ABC starts the news saying "in Breaking News" even when talking about a story a few days old. Awful. How can you believe anything they say.

Just give me the news and not all the other crap.

 

[ll74]

That is what media has become.

 

[Dhfranklin94]

True. I actually think local news has better reporting at this point.

 

[ll74]

True. I actually think local news has better reporting at this point.

Most local news is owned by the same company across the US

 

[Wonderer67]

I hate media bias.

What passes as “news” is typically opinion and then “analysis and spin” on what it means or should mean to you.

Just looking at headlines is my go to news source. I’m 100% ok, taking that info, and knowing that this means to me and what is factual or not. I like to get those headlines from an aggregator, which includes a few news sources that are as centrist as much possible.

The news is a business unfortunately. I never watch tv news.

This is nothing new.

 

[Chernosoth]

What you want is at the smaller orgs, especially the self-employed journalists running their own sites, podcasts, and video channels. Avoiding propaganda always takes some work. You may eventually arrive at a decision of cancelling a cable TV subscription and spending that money at the paywalls of several better news sites. But the internet has been in decline for a while. It is becoming more corporate, controlled, consolidated, censored, and spammed as internet expenses rise, and now there's AI content, random gibberish replacing human writing and editing. The next wave of journalism is likely to be offline, in print media, ham radio, etc.

 

[Comshaw]

What you want is at the smaller orgs, especially the self-employed journalists running their own sites, podcasts, and video channels. Avoiding propaganda always takes some work. You may eventually arrive at a decision of cancelling a cable TV subscription and spending that money at the paywalls of several better news sites. But the internet has been in decline for a while. It is becoming more corporate, controlled, consolidated, censored, and spammed as internet expenses rise, and now there's AI content, random gibberish replacing human writing and editing. The next wave of journalism is likely to be offline, in print media, ham radio, etc.

One of the HUGE problems is that people can't or won't differentiate between hard news and opinion pieces. Reporting that Donald Trump said "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" is factual news. Reporting that the recovered laptop was Hunter Biden's is news. Stating that Donald Trump wanted to sell the secret documents that he kept is an opinion. Saying that Harris wants "open borders" is an opinion.

The former category comes with fact checks and verification; the latter with none because it's how people want to see a certain thing and not what it truly is.

The problem comes when people engage in confirmation bias. They look for and find shows that agree with how they see things. After a short time when a host of one of those shows says a thing, they don't bother to fact-check it or verify it, they just accept it as true, because "that person on the screen said so and I agree with most everything else they said so they would never lie to me!"

Getting to the truth and the facts of the matter takes work. When you hear a thing as news, verify it. Not in the six degrees of Kevin Bacon Game type convoluted, "it might be true" or "I heard it from my sister who heard it from her friend, who heard it from her uncle and he doesn't lie" tenuous bullshit connection.

But that ain't gunna happen any time soon. Those who want to believe in a thing will believe in that thing no matter the facts held before thier eyes.



Comshaw

 

[Philthy_Phil]

So, I have gotten to the point that it is nearly impossible to tolerate watching the national news. They should call it something else because it is not the factual news. I started watching the ABC National news tonight but after several minutes I had to turn the channel. It is the same thing with them every night. I want to hear the factual news so I can make my own opinion on the topics reported on but all I keep hearing is opinions and the news anchors slant or beliefs on the topics. I then turned the channel to the CBS National news and got the same thing. At least I lasted longer on CBS than ABC. Lol. The guy on ABC starts the news saying "in Breaking News" even when talking about a story a few days old. Awful. How can you believe anything they say.

Just give me the news and not all the other crap.

Welcome to 2001, n00b

 

[Politruk]

The concept that journalism should be neutral or objective never even existed before the 20th Century.