Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe TV on January 25, 2011 at 7:04am

Journalists sometimes get the facts wrong, true.  Everyone has a bias, true.  

If you want to limit your news diet to sources that are infallible and somehow magically clinically objective on every topic, you will get zero news.

Most journalists are at least trying to be fair and accurate, at the least.   

There's a beautiful baby in that bathwater.

James Baum said:

No slack from me.

 

Of the subjects I care about and am knowledgeable in, journalists invarioably get the facts wrong.  I am not  talking just a little bit wrong, but WAY off base and into left field.  Often things are spun so that a certain political agenda is favored regarding some umbrella/meta "moral" being expressed or pushed -usually in such a way as to make people who are interested in that hobby/craft/whatever/political party seem stupid/evil/wasteful/silly or just plain wrong.

 

I can only assume they do this when they are reporting in other subjects which I'm not as knowledgeable about so that I don't catch it.  But I'm pretty sure they are if the ones that I do have some knowledge about is any indication.

 

Reporters suck.  And that includes those whose bias is to the left/right/middle or anywhere off on a tangent to the typical 2D political spectrum. 

 

 

Serge Lubomudrov said:

Cut some slack?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on January 25, 2011 at 7:09am

Primary sources -or at least as close as you can come to them. The more sources the better and then read between the lines.

 

Professional reporters are not worth reading, and the ones on video? -well I killed my TV a long time ago.  I usually don't bother to watch news videos online as it is a huge waste of time over reading something.  The videocentric news is usually 10x as biased and has 1/10 the content. It's just news "junk food" for the Hoi Polloi.

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on January 25, 2011 at 7:23am

Primary sources are great if you aren't interested in timeliness.  You can wait for Rahm's memoirs to be written and published to learn about the Chicago mayoral election, but if you like to know what's happening in the world as it happens, you're thankful for the journalism trade.

 

James Baum said:

Primary sources -or at least as close as you can come to them. The more sources the better and then read between the lines.

 

Professional reporters are not worth reading, and the ones on video? -well I killed my TV a long time ago.  I usually don't bother to watch news videos online as it is a huge waste of time over reading something.  The videocentric news is usually 10x as biased and has 1/10 the content. It's just news "junk food" for the Hoi Polloi.

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Permalink Reply by J.P. on January 25, 2011 at 9:26am

I don't think I spent so much. I picked up 2-3 merino sweaters as base laters at $25 a pop, I hi-viz jacket for $30, merino socks (5 pair) for $25, balaclava for $25. I already had long-johns, gloves and all the other stuff. And I am going to keep using this stuff for years probably. On a full tank of gas, I'd spent ... what, 45 bucks, and I haven't filled up since late November.

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on January 25, 2011 at 10:48am

Doctors sometimes make mistakes too.  Does that mean we should never consult a physician?  You can't hold a person up to a superhuman standard just because he or she is a journalist.  Once you accept that good journalism is the BEST ATTEMPT at truth under severe time, space, and resource constraints, you can have a more realistic and rewarding relationship with the press.

Serge Lubomudrov said:

Journalists make mistakes so often, that I am not sure there's anything but dirty bathwater.

Even my favorite Keith Olbermann, in his final "Countdown" last Friday, managed to date Lenin's death by 1926 (correct year is 1924). When a professional like Olbermann, with his seasoned team of writers and editors, makes errors like that . . . Sure, it is not a major snafu, but still.

I don't know, may be it is not journalists to be blamed, but the audience which eats everything up uncritically.

Joe TV said:

Journalists sometimes get the facts wrong, true.  Everyone has a bias, true.  

If you want to limit your news diet to sources that are infallible and somehow magically clinically objective on every topic, you will get zero news.

Most journalists are at least trying to be fair and accurate, at the least.   

There's a beautiful baby in that bathwater.

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on January 25, 2011 at 11:26am

A simple fact check is not a super human feat, true, but 100% accuracy 100% of the time isn't possible even in history books, much less live television.  Mistakes are inevitable, it's an inherent risk of the job.  Expecting otherwise is fantasy. 

 

That said, I think that broadcast outlets should have a "corrections" segment similar to the corrections column in many newspapers. 

Serge Lubomudrov said:

If doctors were making as many mistakes as journalists, I would definitely avoid 'em. One doesn't have to be super-human to perform a simple fact-check: even a glance on an article at Wikipedia (and I'm sure they have much more sources available to them) would be enough to get a correct date or something like that (to continue on my Olbermann example).

Joe TV said:

Doctors sometimes make mistakes too.  Does that mean we should never consult a physician?  You can't hold a person up to a superhuman standard just because he or she is a journalist.  Once you accept that good journalism is the BEST ATTEMPT at truth under severe time, space, and resource constraints, you can have a more realistic and rewarding relationship with the press.

Serge Lubomudrov said:

Journalists make mistakes so often, that I am not sure there's anything but dirty bathwater.

Even my favorite Keith Olbermann, in his final "Countdown" last Friday, managed to date Lenin's death by 1926 (correct year is 1924). When a professional like Olbermann, with his seasoned team of writers and editors, makes errors like that . . . Sure, it is not a major snafu, but still.

I don't know, may be it is not journalists to be blamed, but the audience which eats everything up uncritically.

Joe TV said:

Journalists sometimes get the facts wrong, true.  Everyone has a bias, true.  

If you want to limit your news diet to sources that are infallible and somehow magically clinically objective on every topic, you will get zero news.

Most journalists are at least trying to be fair and accurate, at the least.   

There's a beautiful baby in that bathwater.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on January 25, 2011 at 12:25pm

There were parts I liked and parts I didn't like.  I agree that they honed in on the expensive gear (which is you guys are right, even people who drive and take public transit spend money on anyways) and I didn't like that they ended with the question, " would these cyclists have rode back 27 yeras ago when the temp was 25 or so below zero?" (I don't have the exact wording but you get what I mean). But they were out and gave us some kudos...

 

What are you gonna do. I do think if the students rode in winter it would have been a different twist, but what can you do, they are learning about journalism and what sells, right :))?

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on January 25, 2011 at 12:26pm

Here is another winter video. This one, made by a cyclist... (Elizabeth is in the video dressing with her surly in the background).

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