How Media Narratives Became More Important Than Facts

[Cow Poke]

How Media Narratives Became More Important Than Facts

The sad state of journalism.

The Narrative Requires

[mikewhitney]

There are many 'fact-checking' companies that have formed. They will advise what news has been approved, especially because these companies work closely with government. The various news organizations (and Google and Facebook?) can rely on this expertise. This process is reminiscent of Pravda in the old days.

[Mountain Man]

Or Microsoft's "News Guard" which rates the reliability of stories based on the source rather than the story itself. In many cases, it flags true stories from conservative sources as unreliable, and false stories from liberal sources as trustworthy.

[One Bad Pig]

There are many 'fact-checking' companies that have formed. They will advise what news has been approved, especially because these companies work closely with government. The various news organizations (and Google and Facebook?) can rely on this expertise. This process is reminiscent of Pravda in the old days.

Government? Lolno. Progressive government, now there's a possibility. Ironic that you seem to be swallowing the Venezuelan government's narrative hook, line, and sinker.

[mikewhitney]

Government? Lolno. Progressive government, now there's a possibility. Ironic that you seem to be swallowing the Venezuelan government's narrative hook, line, and sinker.

I saw this traced through concerning the Canadian government and "fact checkers." This fact-checking is more in alignment with progressive/democrat government. We rarely get another viewpoint in the news today. Mountain Man just mentioned about Microsoft.

I'm trying to contain my smirking at your ironic humor.

[Sparko]

She touched on one aspect of the news today that really bothers me. Especially with online news articles. Nobody does any original reporting any more. They just report on other people's articles. Sometimes you can dig three or four articles down before you get to the original article. That's not reporting. That's just laziness.

[firstfloor]

[Cow Poke]

She touched on one aspect of the news today that really bothers me. Especially with online news articles. Nobody does any original reporting any more. They just report on other people's articles. Sometimes you can dig three or four articles down before you get to the original article. That's not reporting. That's just laziness.

I've noticed that, too. There used to be a word for that... um... plagiarizing? And, yeah, they'll often give the credit somewhere in the article, but for the most part, it's just cut-n-paste with no additional analysis or challenge.

Often, I'll just choose a whole sentence to copy, then search for that exact term, and you'll find MULTIPLE "same stories".

Now, it USED to be that the source was somebody like Associated Press, and that's understandable, but at least AP USED to do the homework and provide sources.

[Cow Poke]

Which is why I often force myself to endure the ClintonNewsNetwork or check in on your favorite girlfriend. I like to see what the crazy extreme leftist pinko commie lying scumbag phony journalists are saying. You know... balance!

[Sparko]

I've noticed that, too. There used to be a word for that... um... plagiarizing? And, yeah, they'll often give the credit somewhere in the article, but for the most part, it's just cut-n-paste with no additional analysis or challenge.

Often, I'll just choose a whole sentence to copy, then search for that exact term, and you'll find MULTIPLE "same stories".

Now, it USED to be that the source was somebody like Associated Press, and that's understandable, but at least AP USED to do the homework and provide sources.

The other style of article I can't stand is when someone just reports what other people said on twitter and what the responses are. If I want to read twitter I will read twitter. I don't need someone to copy and paste a bunch of tweets and call that news.

[Sparko]

Which is why I often force myself to endure the ClintonNewsNetwork or check in on your favorite girlfriend. I like to see what the crazy extreme leftist pinko commie lying scumbag phony journalists are saying. You know... balance!

Cable News isn't news anymore, it is 24 hour commentary.

[Cow Poke]

Cable News isn't news anymore, it is 24 hour commentary.

And that's a YUGE part of the problem, eh? It used to be that they'd have to do the research, gather the facts, and condense them into a half hour newscast (probably closer to 11 minutes, given traffic, weather and commercials).

Now, you see the cable news people breathlessly speculating realtime "we don't know if this is an active shooter situation yet, but... blah blah blah..... we are FIRST ON THE SCENE... blah blah blah....."

I can't even force myself to watch Shepherd Smith in such an event - breathlessly telling us we don't want to speculate, while launching into speculation...

[Christianbookworm]

Is good journalism just as fantastic as super powered characters wearing brightly colored costumes?

[One Bad Pig]

I saw this traced through concerning the Canadian government and "fact checkers." This fact-checking is more in alignment with progressive/democrat government. We rarely get another viewpoint in the news today. Mountain Man just mentioned about Microsoft.

I'm trying to contain my smirking at your ironic humor.

Smirking because... what you posted more or less validates my contention? There's a new one.

[Mountain Man]

Which is why I often force myself to endure the ClintonNewsNetwork or check in on your favorite girlfriend. I like to see what the crazy extreme leftist pinko commie lying scumbag phony journalists are saying. You know... balance!

Drudge does a good job of providing a cross section of stories across the political spectrum.