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What is fact and what is opinion? Where are only the "facts" available? Everything is subjective, it is only the matter of degree and whether the source ATTEMPTS to be objective and presents both/all sides of the issue. Does the source clearly label what is opinion and commentary?
There are far too many news sources that only provide part of a story, part of a video, interviews from only certain people, etc.. in order to promote their agenda. These viewers only see parts of the story, are left completely misinformed of what really happened and are now forming opinions based on this.
So to answer your question, facts are what really happened without any assumptions or partial stories. Everything is subjective but it should be left to the viewer to decide as anything other is a form of brainwashing.
My sister put it this way during our last presidential election: "We should be able to watch any news station in America without becoming aware of who the station is favoring in any way" because of their completely unbiased reporting. However, even our local news is biased to a certain extent. Other than Fox News, ABC, NBC and CBS are left leaning and love threwing fuel on the fire of racism.
I have decided to just watch the local news nowadays. The mainstream media and cable channels, and newspapers all seem to be biased. There should be a warning label for the news nowadays:
CNN: left leaning commentary news channel
FOX: conservative commentary news channel
MSN: far left leaning commentary news channel
Local news stations: Just the facts. No commentary
The cable news stations should not be called "news." Should be "political commentary."
What are your thoughts on the "news" nowadays and how it has changed?
Like NASCAR they should have to wear clothes that reflect their political leanings. I don't bother with the news these days I MIGHT listen to NPR on the way to work but they tend to sway one way or another as well. Even the so called independent news sources on the internet are leaning one way or another.
On the other hand, over 80-percent recognize that the self-important blather of the teleprompter-reading, talking heads is designed to sell advertising, not to intelligently inform or analyze. Most have become little more than a real life parody of Ted Baxter.
There are far too many news sources that only provide part of a story, part of a video, interviews from only certain people, etc.. in order to promote their agenda. These viewers only see parts of the story, are left completely misinformed of what really happened and are now forming opinions based on this.
So to answer your question, facts are what really happened without any assumptions or partial stories. Everything is subjective but it should be left to the viewer to decide as anything other is a form of brainwashing.
I was not clear...I know what facts are...but how do IDENTIFY and ISOLATE the facts when they are in a sea of subjective commentary?
The idea of an "unbiased press" only came about immediately after WWII. Prior to that, every educated person knew he needed to read four or five newspapers to get an idea of the whole story.
Viewing the results of media propaganda in Germany and the USSR, post-WWII journalists invented the concept of an unbiased press, with Edward R Murrow as the most vocal proponent.
However, that could not last forever, primarily because governments continually work themselves to shape social opinions toward whatever actions they were taking...so an "unbiased" opinion became relatively biased in the opposite direction.
All that's happened today is essentially a return to normalcy for the media. The answer is to vary your sources, just as prior to WWII.
The difficulty, however, is that Internet news, search, and consumer engines use algorithms that simply give you more of whatever you've been looking at, so they automatically put you into an echo chamber of what they calculate are your own biases. You have to deliberately search for alternate sources.
I was not clear...I know what facts are...but how do IDENTIFY and ISOLATE the facts when they are in a sea of subjective commentary?
That's the problem, you shouldn't have to. If you do then that is an unreliable news source. There should be no opinions or assumptions in the news. If you must isolate the facts don't just rely on one news source for the whole story, do your own research.
The media has never been popular Our second President, John Adams, persuaded Congress to pass a Sedition Act. Under the terms of this law, a handful of journalists were actually imprisoned for writing articles critical of the President. All this occurred in a country that had supposedly enshrined Freedom of the Press in the First Amendment of our Constitution.
As a child, I grew up in the 1960's and 1970's. News was available from three networks: ABC; CBS; and NBC. Coverage tended to me more balanced and more factual. When opinion was given, it was clearly identified as such.
My best advice is to simply listen to a variety of news sources. The two I try to avoid are FOX and MSNBC.
I have decided to just watch the local news nowadays. The mainstream media and cable channels, and newspapers all seem to be biased. There should be a warning label for the news nowadays:
CNN: left leaning commentary news channel
FOX: conservative commentary news channel
MSN: far left leaning commentary news channel
Local news stations: Just the facts. No commentary
The cable news stations should not be called "news." Should be "political commentary."
What are your thoughts on the "news" nowadays and how it has changed?
The local news stations in Los Angeles (ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11) are definitely left-leaning.
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