Author Topic: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??  (Read 22341 times)

GatewayTwo

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #50 on: July 02, 2015, 12:04:55 PM »
My parents are the "always have a TV on in the background" sort.  It drives me nuts (and I think they have trouble with the quiet when they visit us).

When informed that we don't have any television sets in the house (or garage, or cars, or anywhere) my parents responded with "Surely you need one just to watch the news at night."  I said no, really there is nothing on the TV that we need in the house, especially with little ones.  To which we got an incredulous "But, how will you know if there is a storm coming?"  To which Mrs. GatewayTwo opened a window, stuck her head out, and said "All's clear here".  While I was rolling around on the floor laughing, my 4 year old brought them my phone and said "there is a cloud picture on there and it says the weather, grandma".

I love kids.


enigmaT120

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #51 on: July 02, 2015, 12:28:29 PM »
I'm loving this thread. I think I might try reading just the Economist and the New Yorker for a few weeks and see where that leaves me. New Yorker gives me deep dives and top notch writing, which is important to me. And the Economist covers an amazing amount of the world in their weekly - only thing they don't like about them is that they write like they're having a polite argument that they've already won, and they seem to think we're still living at the height of british colonialism

The Economist is a good magazine, but if you don't read The Onion you won't know what's really going on and what is important about it.  The Onion:  mercilessly accurate.


Manguy888

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #52 on: July 02, 2015, 12:59:39 PM »
I should have made that clear: I DEFINITELY read the Onion

Kaspian

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #53 on: July 02, 2015, 01:35:42 PM »


It was apolitical catastrophy porn. And because this house has paper thin walls, I cannot escape it.

You're right, but what bugs me even worse is the commercials that air during the news. Boner pills. Cholesterol pills. Diabetic supplies. Pills for depression. The world is a disaster, but Big Pharma fixes everything. Apparently.

And nobody seems to get the irony that erectile dysfunction, diabetes, depression, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight issues can all be partly (mainly) attributed to a sedentary lifestyle where somebody sits on their ass all day and night watching mindless TV commercials for the very drug that's supposed to cure them. 

zephyr911

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #54 on: July 02, 2015, 01:36:48 PM »
And nobody seems to get the irony that erectile dysfunction, diabetes, depression, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight issues can all be partly (mainly) attributed to a sedentary lifestyle where somebody sits on their ass all day and night watching mindless TV commercials for the very drug that's supposed to cure them.
Whoa. You're onto something.

wenchsenior

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #55 on: July 02, 2015, 01:55:56 PM »
To the people who abstain from news altogether, what are your thoughts on public radio like NPR? No ads or pundits, but they will inform you of the horrible things happening in the world.

I enjoy NPR quite a bit, and often tune in when I am driving.  I appreciate their format, and I do feel like it is much more educational than the loud noises, flashy lights main stream tv news designed for ADD viewers.  It definitely makes me realize I have aged.  I still remember groaning when my parents turned the car radio to NPR. 

I also have emailed google alerts running for local news stories, so I can stay informed on things that may be discussed at work.

Public Radio and BBC are my main news sources. I just skip the call-in programs when the topic is likely to elicit cookie-cutter, politically predictable calls or stuff like, e.g., Wisconsin PR (which I listen to a lot) has a weekly news show that ALWAYS features one democrat, and one republican to 'analyze' and 'debate' weekly news. It makes me want to slam their heads into the nearest hard objects, followed by mine. SO STUPID. SO PREDICTABLE.

clifp

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #56 on: July 02, 2015, 09:43:36 PM »
Ever since I've retired, I've made a point of listening to the PBS Newshour.  It is 55 minutes of good old fashion news.  No shouting, no 30 second sound bites, balanced reporting and interesting analysis.  It covers a bunch of things really well. For instance, I've seen a couple minute report on all 67 case before the Supreme Court this session, as well as analysis of all of the decisions.  As result my opinion of SCOTUS isn't just shaped by the high profile cases.

It certainly can be dry at times, and there is shortage of hot woman in tight skirts, but if you want international, and economic news it is really good source.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2015, 06:29:40 AM by clifp »

MMMaybe

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #57 on: July 03, 2015, 06:10:15 AM »
This is American TV in general. They seem to have dumbed everything down to a large degree and are very repetitive.

Have you noticed in shows that there is always someone around explaining concepts to the masses? There is absolutely no assumption of general knowledge. Like someone says a vaguely technical term and some bright spark breaks it down for the audience. I often feel as though I have lost a few IQ points just watching!

Bardo

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #58 on: July 03, 2015, 08:30:49 AM »
I'm loving this thread. I think I might try reading just the Economist and the New Yorker for a few weeks and see where that leaves me. New Yorker gives me deep dives and top notch writing, which is important to me. And the Economist covers an amazing amount of the world in their weekly - only thing they don't like about them is that they write like they're having a polite argument that they've already won, and they seem to think we're still living at the height of british colonialism

Economist is the only print news I ever buy, though typically only when I'm traveling by plane (which is about 3 or 4 times per year). That is a great description!

On the appalling end of the spectrum: Huffington Post (which I used to visit back in my pre-Internet news blackout days). I swear, it gets worse every year.

Absolutely.  Huffington Post has a well-earned reputation as sensationalist lowbrow clickbait trash.  You can shoot me if I ever go there. 

Bear in mind that a lot of what purports to be "news" is actually just politics, to the degree where a lot of people have lost the ability to tell the difference.  That is why I can't listen to public radio - it is obsessed with politics and virtually ignores important areas like business, the economy and science. 

Really, one's best bet for quality news coverage is The Economist.  Yes, they do have some political coverage, but it is focused on reporting, not talking head "analysis" and it is far from the bulk of reporting.  Best of all, The Economist covers the entire world, not just the US, and has a lot on business and the economy.  Nothing on celebrities, television, movies, fads or popular music, but regular coverage of books, science and occasionally classical music.  What's not to like?  There's a reason that it's what world leaders read.


Bardo

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #59 on: July 03, 2015, 08:38:04 AM »
This is American TV in general. They seem to have dumbed everything down to a large degree and are very repetitive.

Have you noticed in shows that there is always someone around explaining concepts to the masses? There is absolutely no assumption of general knowledge. Like someone says a vaguely technical term and some bright spark breaks it down for the audience. I often feel as though I have lost a few IQ points just watching!

Television is going to be dumbed down by its very nature.  That was the point of "Amusing Ourselves to Death" I mentioned earlier.  It has to be targeted at "the masses".  That is why it is great for entertainment but can never be useful for anything serious.  We really just have to accept it for what it is and use it sparingly, like eating candy.  Nothing wrong in small doses, but don't kid yourself that it is nutrition. 

trailrated

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #60 on: July 03, 2015, 09:52:45 AM »
SOMETHING IN YOUR HOUSE MIGHT KILL YOU, STAY TUNED TO THIS THREAD TO FIND OUT WHAT... ON PAGE 4.

slugline

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #61 on: July 03, 2015, 10:51:56 AM »
That is why I can't listen to public radio - it is obsessed with politics and virtually ignores important areas like business, the economy and science. 

Your public radio station must have a different mix than mine. I hear just as much pop culture as politics, but it's also where I've discovered shows like Marketplace and Science Friday.

Tyson

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #62 on: July 03, 2015, 12:18:28 PM »
When I got laid off from work about a year ago we cut cable and man has that ever paid off in terms of daily emotional health.  When I visit relatives who still have cable I am reminded how incredibly powerful and damaging that kind of exposure is. 

I still get the news, but I get it from websites or magazines like The Atlantic and Vox.com because they do actual research and in-depth articles. 

wenchsenior

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #63 on: July 03, 2015, 12:28:58 PM »
That is why I can't listen to public radio - it is obsessed with politics and virtually ignores important areas like business, the economy and science. 

Your public radio station must have a different mix than mine. I hear just as much pop culture as politics, but it's also where I've discovered shows like Marketplace and Science Friday.

Yes, I think it definitely depends on the local market. I listen mainly to Wisconsin Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio. MPR in very good, with a good mix of shows and excellent coverage of business, sociology, science, health, economics, and international news, as well as politics both national and local. WPR is slightly lower quality, with more emphasis on politics. My sense is that WPR content is somewhat more affected by the hosts' area of interest. One particular host, though fine at her job, is OBSESSED with politics (the horse-race aspect), Abraham Lincoln, and dogs. SO MANY SHOWS on those topics. So I often skip her shows.

I often listen to On Point (out of Boston) and they have a complete mix of topics, covered for an hour each.

Mrs.LC

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #64 on: July 05, 2015, 09:28:16 PM »
My parents (80 & 85) have the news on all day long except for when they watch Gunsmoke and the 600 pound whatever show. All they talk about is who shot whom, who blew up whatever, and whatever major weather crisis is happening in the world. I go along with them and converse the best I can as I don't care to rock their boat. I try to keep up with local community happenings but that is about it. I do see the state and national news once in awhile when I'm at the gym. That's enough!

kite

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #65 on: July 06, 2015, 05:58:11 AM »
To the people who abstain from news altogether, what are your thoughts on public radio like NPR? No ads or pundits, but they will inform you of the horrible things happening in the world.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

NPR isn't free of advertising.  "Brought to you by Lumosity" or "sponsored by Novo Nordisk" is one thing, but it you listen critically, you'll realize they are also promoting so-and-so's latest book, movie, album or candidacy in the content itself.  Whole thing is marketing. 

Le Poisson

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #66 on: July 06, 2015, 06:20:15 AM »
I like to end my day with "The National" - CBC's national news broadcast. Maybe Canadian News is different from that of the US, but I actually feel informed and motivated to make change when I see what is happening in my country and in the world. Rather than feel hopeless over Armenian Refugees, I felt empowered that a group in Toronto set a goal to bring refugees here and help them restart their lives, and I knew there was an opportunity to help by doing paperwork or support work for their office. When Ebola struck, I felt good to know that Canadian feet on the ground were making a difference and that we could support our nurses and doctors through funding or by helping their families. etc. I find our news is still informational, still actionable, and still relevant.

I pay close attention to the business panels in hopes of beginning to understand what drives the market - but I haven't managed to put one and one together to come up with 3.5 yet.

I do mutter under my breath on the corruption and scandal stories, but recognize that the CBC has a serious hate on for our current Conservative government, so all political stories are to be taken with a grain of salt. Or seven. For instance - the current scandal in the senate is almost all covered as though Harper was the mastermind behind the spending and appointments. I'm not saying he wasn't, he's just too easy a target for them to pin it all on. I am not a supporter of any party ATM, so the political skew of the stories is an annoyance, not something I find offensive.

When I watch other Canadian news I am not as comfortable - this is because I know the ground rules for CBC coverage (Hate the Conservatives, use a lot of compassion, panelists are always a mix, etc.) My inlaws watch CTV news to support their son who works for that network. I feel completely un-newsed at the end of the broadcast, I just don't get their approach to the stories.

Bob W

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #67 on: July 06, 2015, 12:20:00 PM »
OMFG!   I hadn't watched a TV news program in probably over  a year.   I was at sister's house Sunday morning and they had FOX news on with Donald Trump interview etc..    I was like a freaking Mennonite in the Walmart -- couldn't take my eyes off the set.   

And Trump!   I can't believe I actually said "I'm voting for him" after watching his shtick.    What a sales guy.   Create a controversy and then spend days getting free air time addressing the controversy --- freaking brilliant. 

His spin on the whole Mexican thing was fantastic.   It appears that other media are reporting that 80+% of Mexican women crossing the border are being raped by their male illegals.   So it appears that Trump's comment was in fact underestimating the problem.

Now back to no TV news for me.   It is fun to tune in every once in a while. 

I think I'll start tracking my low information diet and see how many days I can go with no news.  That means,  I'll have to tune out NPR on the drive time.   Could I be blissful with just silence?   Could I change my morning routine to no radio while cooking breakfast?   Only one way to tell. 

Tyson

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #68 on: July 06, 2015, 01:49:04 PM »
OMFG!   I hadn't watched a TV news program in probably over  a year.   I was at sister's house Sunday morning and they had FOX news on with Donald Trump interview etc..    I was like a freaking Mennonite in the Walmart -- couldn't take my eyes off the set.   

And Trump!   I can't believe I actually said "I'm voting for him" after watching his shtick.    What a sales guy.   Create a controversy and then spend days getting free air time addressing the controversy --- freaking brilliant. 

His spin on the whole Mexican thing was fantastic.   It appears that other media are reporting that 80+% of Mexican women crossing the border are being raped by their male illegals.   So it appears that Trump's comment was in fact underestimating the problem.

Now back to no TV news for me.   It is fun to tune in every once in a while. 

I think I'll start tracking my low information diet and see how many days I can go with no news.  That means,  I'll have to tune out NPR on the drive time.   Could I be blissful with just silence?   Could I change my morning routine to no radio while cooking breakfast?   Only one way to tell.

Back when I commuted I would check out audiobooks from the library and listen to them instead of the radio.  I got through The Iliad, Moby Dick, and a few other classic books that way. 

Bardo

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #69 on: July 07, 2015, 05:41:35 AM »
I once imagiend that, with the increasing number of different news sources, we would see more in depth stories about actual problems.

As it happens I just had this conversation with someone else. 

On the contrary; there is somewhat of a Gresham's Law for information content at work:  Too much bad information content drives out the good.

Look, there are dozens of tv channels and untold thousands of sites distributing news.  They are all competing for a limited number of eyeballs and/or clicks.  Therefore they all have an inexhaustible appetite for inexpensive but always-fresh content.  It is a necessity to stay in business.  In that kind of environment it is inevitable that almost any site will choose to dumb down content and be sensationalist to survive.  I can't see how it could be otherwise.  All we as information consumers can do is understand, accept and move on.




rocketpj

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #70 on: July 14, 2015, 01:38:19 PM »
I had to stop watching television news about 15 years ago after doing a MA thesis on political information and how it affects political beliefs and viewpoints.

Spend a year or two utterly immersed in political news of all kinds looking for (and finding, with depressing constancy) a definite bias in all news sources - what, when and how they present information.  After that it takes no more than about 25 seconds of news footage to piss me off.

Newspapers suffered a similar fate.  Now all news comes from the internet, and even then I keep the Coast of Bohemia in mind.

Quote
To
traverse the world men must have maps of the world. Their persistent
difficulty is to secure maps on which their own need, or someone
else's need, has not sketched in the coast of Bohemia.  Walter Lippmann, 1920

astvilla

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #71 on: July 14, 2015, 03:23:42 PM »
Yeah I get the same frustration.  The main news you see like big broadcasters, CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC to me are all trash and garbage. 

I used to have respect for Al Jazeera.  But later caught on to how biased it was.  There were segments talking about how bad America was (yeah got it but it needed perspective, though not surprising stance for a Qatari news channel) and how incredibly biased it was when there as a Chinese government official being interviewed at some British University.  The questioning and debate was so one sided and rude it really shocked me that anyone could look at it and NOT support the Chinese.  I gave up on them after that.  Oh and Uncle Sam banned me from watching Al Jazeera on Youtube so there's that. 

VICE is a lot more fear-whipping but it's at least a very in close look and you see what's actually going on a bit more.  Of course there's story telling and narratives, agendas to push out there as well. 

PBS has good news programs, I find it to be really soothing.  I read NYT (pretty disappointed lately) but someone mentioned ProPublica maybe will transition to that.  NYT is good sometimes, poor reporting others but it's better than most everything else out there. 

I never got Economist or WSJ, not sure if those are good or objective?

KiwiSonya

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #72 on: July 14, 2015, 09:03:04 PM »
My grandma had the news playing all day and became so fearful that she wouldn't leave the house "for fear of being raped or killed". We live in NZ, one of the safest countries in the world. When I told her I was going to travel to India she was convinced someone would steal my kidneys. Never going to let that happen to me. Hubby is a news junkie so I just ask him if anything relevant to my life and interests happened today and the answer is quite often "no". Low info diet all the way!

nobodyspecial

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #73 on: July 15, 2015, 10:01:44 AM »
I used to have respect for Al Jazeera.  But later caught on to how biased it was.
Watch al Jazeera and Fox and average them?

Quote
I never got Economist or WSJ, not sure if those are good or objective?
Economist is good but have one view on everything - free trade/free markets will solve everything.
To be fair they have been consistent in this view for nearly 200years.



zephyr911

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #74 on: July 15, 2015, 10:32:37 AM »
I had to stop watching television news about 15 years ago after doing a MA thesis on political information and how it affects political beliefs and viewpoints.

Spend a year or two utterly immersed in political news of all kinds looking for (and finding, with depressing constancy) a definite bias in all news sources - what, when and how they present information.  After that it takes no more than about 25 seconds of news footage to piss me off.

Newspapers suffered a similar fate.  Now all news comes from the internet, and even then I keep the Coast of Bohemia in mind.

Quote
To
traverse the world men must have maps of the world. Their persistent
difficulty is to secure maps on which their own need, or someone
else's need, has not sketched in the coast of Bohemia.  Walter Lippmann, 1920
I feel dumb for having to ask, but is this a lesson in wishful thinking, or what?

Papa Mustache

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #75 on: July 16, 2015, 09:07:02 PM »
Oiy, I would totally lose it if I were trapped in a house like that for a week. Can you put on a movie, or something? Remove the cable cord from the back of the TV and hide it in the bushes?

My parents are also news junkies, but I just pretend to be really, really interested in that great documentary on snow cranes so they won't change the channel. Now that we have kids I also get to say, "Uh, the news isn't suitable for kids. It gives them bad dreams. Please turn it off."

Been there done that - so instead that family member just switched over to CSI... WTH?

Papa Mustache

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #76 on: July 16, 2015, 09:40:21 PM »
My grandma had the news playing all day and became so fearful that she wouldn't leave the house "for fear of being raped or killed". We live in NZ, one of the safest countries in the world. When I told her I was going to travel to India she was convinced someone would steal my kidneys. Never going to let that happen to me. Hubby is a news junkie so I just ask him if anything relevant to my life and interests happened today and the answer is quite often "no". Low info diet all the way!

That made me chuckle. My grandmother was the same. Jailbreak in New Mexico and 10 states to the east she is warning me to lock the doors that night. The criminals might come to her house for an unwelcome visit. And the storm door latch made of a nickel's worth of low grade aluminum was the first line of defense. Make sure it is locked! (Once when I was locked out I gave it a sharp jerk and it opened right up, no damage at all...)

rocketpj

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #77 on: July 21, 2015, 05:18:23 PM »
I had to stop watching television news about 15 years ago after doing a MA thesis on political information and how it affects political beliefs and viewpoints.

Spend a year or two utterly immersed in political news of all kinds looking for (and finding, with depressing constancy) a definite bias in all news sources - what, when and how they present information.  After that it takes no more than about 25 seconds of news footage to piss me off.

Newspapers suffered a similar fate.  Now all news comes from the internet, and even then I keep the Coast of Bohemia in mind.

Quote
To
traverse the world men must have maps of the world. Their persistent
difficulty is to secure maps on which their own need, or someone
else's need, has not sketched in the coast of Bohemia.  Walter Lippmann, 1920
I feel dumb for having to ask, but is this a lesson in wishful thinking, or what?

Not sure what you mean, but if you refer to my academic stuff - there is a difference between 'what everyone knows' and having proof of that.  Common knowledge is not equal to scientific proof.

And of course, bias is a relative term usually defined by how much I/we disagree with the concept being presented or discussed.  My work was on identifying gaps in information - comparing a set of newspapers and other news sources over time to see what/when things were ignored, downplayed, omitted or otherwise spun.

It got so I could extrapolate the editorial directives based on the topics covered.  Back in the mid 90s, in Canada we had some government surpluses.  One newspaper chain (and it's subsidiary local tv stations) basically went on a 24/7 blitz about how our taxes were too high - hundreds of articles from myriad sources all leading to the same conclusion.  Zero articles (quite literally) for months at a time about maybe using those surpluses for other purposes (like debt reduction or whatever).

Similarly there was an artificially generated media frenzy in the mid to late 90s up here about the 'need' to privatize health care - to make it more American.  Eventually that one petered out when the vast majority of Canadians had a better look at the black hole of insanity that is the US health system, but it still comes up at times when someone has an agenda to push.

zephyr911

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #78 on: July 23, 2015, 08:36:35 AM »
Not sure what you mean, but if you refer to my academic stuff - there is a difference between 'what everyone knows' and having proof of that.  Common knowledge is not equal to scientific proof.

And of course, bias is a relative term usually defined by how much I/we disagree with the concept being presented or discussed.  My work was on identifying gaps in information - comparing a set of newspapers and other news sources over time to see what/when things were ignored, downplayed, omitted or otherwise spun.

It got so I could extrapolate the editorial directives based on the topics covered.  Back in the mid 90s, in Canada we had some government surpluses.  One newspaper chain (and it's subsidiary local tv stations) basically went on a 24/7 blitz about how our taxes were too high - hundreds of articles from myriad sources all leading to the same conclusion.  Zero articles (quite literally) for months at a time about maybe using those surpluses for other purposes (like debt reduction or whatever).

Similarly there was an artificially generated media frenzy in the mid to late 90s up here about the 'need' to privatize health care - to make it more American.  Eventually that one petered out when the vast majority of Canadians had a better look at the black hole of insanity that is the US health system, but it still comes up at times when someone has an agenda to push.
I mean this:
Quote
Newspapers suffered a similar fate.  Now all news comes from the internet, and even then I keep the Coast of Bohemia in mind.
In what way does the Coast of Bohemia inform your understanding of the news in question?

Trudie

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Re: Can I just complain about the F**king news for a second??
« Reply #79 on: July 23, 2015, 02:18:16 PM »
I have a friend who writes for television news -- much of which is actually written in one part of the country, then disseminated to other stations around the country.  There's not much local flavor.   It's mostly about national *whatever* day.  Or the same kinds of crap that's trending on Facebook.

It's "info tainment."  The information isn't particularly useful, most of the time, and the people reading the news aren't always particularly bright.  They're talking heads.  Might I also bring up Brian Williams on NBC.  Total eejit, with no respect for the truth.
She says a lot of the kids at smaller stations are just out of college.  She writes the material, but they don't necessarily understand the difference between a robbery and a burglary, for instance.