Tuesday, August 19, 2008

stating the obvious

there's something about staring at news in black and white- stark and unyielding- that makes it more real. i feel sad that newspapers are going the way of cassette tapes- but the newspapers did it to themselves. you have to actually report real facts and news to keep a readership- unless, of course, you are the new york times- and american news agencies and journalists apparently enjoy the high life over doing their jobs.

step into the void- bloggers, independent investigative journalists-- and comedy central 'news anchors' jon stewart and stephen colbert. yep. folks get their news from the daily show and colbert report- and they could do worse. i mean there is cnn and faux noise. and apparently, these folks are more knowledgeable than ones who watch o'reilly or dobbs. huh.

but leave it to the foreign press (with their own set of corporate issues) to cut to the bone of the matter:

"The fake news anchor may be the antidote to fake news, which has a habit of showing up in American newspapers. After all, the US government had an initiative in 2005 to plant "positive news" in Iraqi newspapers to sway public opinion about the war. The Bush administration has worked closely with big business to keep it flowing.

According to Professor Robert Love, of Columbia Journalism School: "They have used fringe scientists and fake experts to muddy scientific debates on global warming, stem-cell research, evolution, and other matters."

ahhhh..... truth in print at last.

7 comments:

PTCruiser said...

It's all about perspective, isn't it? BTW, Jesus wanted me to let you know that He likes this post.

billie said...

hey thanks :) good to have you back.

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

I think we have not one news outlet in this country today. Sure here and there you may find these institutions actually reporting the truth, but it generally is the truth about hair loss or weight gain or infidelity or some such thing that matters so much to the normal joe.

jmsjoin said...

Of course that isn't surprising! That second link was pretty Good. If you want to hear the truth or real news you have to get it outside America.
I am a big fan of Colbert and watch it every day when I can get away with it!

PTCruiser said...

I actually look forward to looking at the paper every morning at work, but not for the internaional/national stuff. Just things like the police blotter / local stuff, ya know? My mother is constantly telling me about the crap that CNN is spoon-feeding her. I told her to stop watching that crap. Please, Mommy?

billie said...

i actually stopped getting the paper because of the local crap. there are only so many pictures of adorable children i can stand. and i don't particularly care whose kid made what local sports team. we have a paper in the gannett chain and they revamped their papers to that format. turned me off and i tell them every time they call for a resub. nope. i want real news not feel good stories.

as for the police blotter, well, after reading about more than one of my former clients dying or being murdered in their 20's- it got a bit depressing. some of the former client's families were getting locked up regularly and i could see that i had done about a teaspoons' worth of good in those kids' lives.

Mariamariacuchita said...

I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper. Whoever said that "no news is good news" was not anticipating fake news.