Fake News - A Bad Seed

[Just_Ed]

Fake News...A Bad Seed

How has this country, ... the world succumbed to this idea?

Exactly where this term originated is uncertain. It's about our constitution and values. This is about the sowing of a bad seed. One that is growing faster than the COVID-19 virus. It is infecting the moral fabric of what is supposed to be the United States.

Subversion - the undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution.

Our president uses this subversive tactic, of fake news as a weapon against anyone who does not cower to him, which sets a dangerous precedence.

Example: - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020
"I watch and listen to the Fake News, CNN, MSDNC, ABC, NBC, CBS, some of FOX (desperately & foolishly pleading to be politically correct), the [New York Times], & the [Washington Post], and all I see is hatred of me at any cost," Trump said on Twitter.

I suggest that main street America never considered that their choice for receiving their daily news could all be fake. Slanted in one direction or another maybe, but fake? I believe there are often falsehoods and inaccuracies in the reporting of news. But to assert that all news items and sources are fake all the time is prejudicial and harmful to the very foundation of what our nation stands on.

If one is to believe in 'fake' news, then should we also believe that all news from every source must be fake?, None of it should be trusted? Should we just shut down all news sources, and trust and rely solely on one person's interpretation of the news. If the later is the case, then are we to discount the thousands of men and women in the news profession, that are often in harm's way, throughout the world, and put our total trust in one person alone. There are countries where this is the norm. Places like Russia, China, North Korea to name a few.

Are we so gullible to think that just because a person is elected to the highest office in the land, that they are suddenly elevated to that of an all-knowing supreme being? That their word is now gospel, and we should live or die based solely on their word.

News networks such as those quoted and all other media sources do the fact-finding for us. Are they right 100% of the time...NO!. Are they biased and unfair on occasions? YES! They all get it wrong sometimes, just as we all do. We must look to the experts to help keep the subject content factual.

We all have our own beliefs and opinions. And if I'm reasonably correct 'we' all believe, that our opinion is the only one that is correct.....am I right? ...Well sometimes 'we' are wrong!

I am not here to suggest or persuade anyone to watch, not watch, or read any particular news source. I would suggest that each choose their news source, and allow others to do the same. But in making that choice, decide the factualness of the news they are receiving. To verify and establish the credibility of that news against multiple sources. Are the facts reported the same throughout other various news sources?

Finally, to follow one's sense of right or wrong. Not be misled by, or blindly trust, any singular persons, interpretation or opinion without verifying what's accurate, truthful and not fake.… including mine. Our Freedom of Speech depends on it.

 

[HK12K]

I wish every reporter were Joe Friday. Just the facts.

A free press is very important, but most journalists seem to have a difficult time separating their own opinions from the facts they're supposed to be reporting on. Ultimately just preaching to their own choir.

 

[Just_Ed]

I wish every reporter were Joe Friday. Just the facts.

A free press is very important, but most journalists seem to have a difficult time separating their own opinions from the facts they're supposed to be reporting on. Ultimately just preaching to their own choir.

Now there is a name from waaaay in the past. If you know who Joe Friday is/was, then that will date you. (Just A Fact) :lol:

 

[HK12K]

Had to google it, 8 seasons starting in 1951. Way before my time, but they were still playing the reruns when I was a kid.

Thinking back to sick days, watching reruns... I Dream of Genie, My Favorite Martian, Lost in Spaaaaaaccccceeeeee.... and of course,

Edit...

Something tells me I know what the robot would be saying right about now.

 

[Balmorhea]

Joe Friday and long-established news outlets (e.g. NYT, WSJ, CBS News) are a really apt comparison. They are actually conscientious about “just the facts”, but they have structural biases because of who they are, where they came from, who they work for.

Joe Friday arose in Jim Crow America, but he did nothing about it. Someone who did oppose Jim Crow, at the time, would have been considered a zealot. But which one would have been right? I have no trouble deciding that.

Democracy Now, a leftist source, presents news that’s no less factual than that aired by centrist CBS or rightist Wall Street Journal. The material they choose to cover, and how they frame the issues, are a reflection of their politics. The latter two have a pro-corporate bias because that’s where their money comes from. The former has an anti-corporate bias, because that’s what it’s viewers (who fund it) want.

Unbiased media is a fiction. Centrism is a bias. Pro-status quo is a bias. It sells itself as being more truthful because it’s in between the extremes, but I think we can all understand that representing the view of deeply established corporate and political power is not only strongly biased, but often sinister in its motives.

 

[goatman]

fake news and checking facts.
where I live it has 5+million population
last year 38,000+people died about 110/day
23% of our population is over 60 yo
884 confirmed cases 17 dead 396 recovered. 471 active cases
weve been tracking the virus for 26 days
takes 2 weeks for the virus to run its course
we have more people recovering by the day than being confirmed
everyone that gets checked in to hospital is put on a ventilator.
majority of deaths are over weight, old, men with underlying health conditions
in 26 days bc has had about 2860 deaths because people die

deaths per million Canada right now from the virus is a little under 2. 63 dead/35 million people in Canada
last year 287,725 people died. about 788 people a day. 24000/month, less than 63 have died this month in Canada so far from the virus.

 

[HK12K]

“You are young yet, my friend, but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see."

 

[Dauntless]

Dating yourself. Yeah, it's been 16 years since Ed O'Neill played Joe Friday on 'Dragnet.' All the way before he basically played Trump (And his wife was even more Melania) on 'Modern Family.' 33 years since Dan Ackroyd's film, though he wasn't the original character.

The fake news story begins before Trump brought it up, though he was right that he was the main target of it. Not just by Paul Horner, of "All news is fake news" fame, but the fake news factory in Macedonia where they'd pay for ads linking their sensational story hooks and people would link so the traffic to the site went up and their online tabloids were quite successful.

The fact is there's nothing new about fake news. Do you know what a "Bard" was? If you paid him off he'd travel the country telling stories about you. 'Beowulf' starts out in this world as fake news about the prince, soon to be king, oh what a hero, eh? If you want a great book, read 'Grendel.' Most of what people think they know about Aaron Burr was fake news at the time. In Medieval times fake news was known as "Blood Libel" because mobs would kill over these stories.

It'll never end. Christopher Columbus died one of the richest men in Europe who had been among the first to call himself a discoverer of a new world, but people want to promote him as dying destitute and believing he'd sailed to China for their own disinformation purposes. Arthur Conan Doyle NEVER recanted anything from the first Sherlock Holmes novel, though the Mormon Church regularly claims he did. Ramesses may not have been crushed at the Battle of Kadesh, but his forces slunk away home in failure. Of course he always claimed victory. As many claim the U.S. won the War of 1812 even though the British burned Washington D.C., the White House included, leading a tail between its' legs U.S. to agree to a treaty to end the blockade that was breaking the entire U.S. So much for the slogan 'On to Canada.'

Ah, but that's not what you want to believe, is it? There's another thread where they blame everything about the Corona Virus on Trump and insist everyone hates him even though his popularity is ever rising. As long as their are people who WANT to believe things, there will be those to report the confirmation bias they long for.

Jack Webb's 2nd 'Dragnet' series ran into 1970, don't forget. Maye you didn't want to be reminded of that.

 

[MJSfoto1956]

How to stop fake news:

 

[AussieRider]

I hear KFC are about to release their "Trump" pack. It contains right wings, arseholes & a serve of shoulder chips.

AussieRider