News - Are we really getting the 'truth'?

[AmenoKitarou]

The media is one of the biggest sources of information that we rely on and that is news. However, does information presented by the media consist of objective truth, or facts that are not altered or restricted in order to deliberately emphasise a certain message for us as viewers to accept?

I've recently watched Danny Schechter's documentary WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) and had a startling realisation of the distortion and manipulation that truth undergoes as the media is strategically embedded and restricted.

So how often do you think an objective fact is presented to us through news presented by the media?

[hitsugaya131]

My Opinion:

The news business is basically an industry to earn money….
They find the most interesting news and stuff….it reveals government sometimes…
Other countries could have spies in here…and here they are broadcasting government ideas that they found out…in some cases…

Also last week, I was on the same airplane as the US representative for the FTA meeting coming baq from south korea…free trade association meeting and one word of advice that she gave me was to don’t believe everything the news says

[Kurai-chan]

the media obviously gives us news about almost everything under the sun and to some extent, they are true but most of them were made exaggerated just to attract the viewers to watch their show. some would even make small things be a big deal! so because of that, i do not just believe them.. most of the time..

[Ashtefere]

The american government is most greedy old men that wanna get rich for retirement. They do this by screwing over the rest of the world and laughing about it.
Whenever someone tries to speak up or fight back, they are pounded into the ground.
This is the world we live in. This is what the american people voted for, this is what they wanted.
Enjoy it.
-Ash

[Nihsnek]

The american government is most greedy old men that wanna get rich for retirement. They do this by screwing over the rest of the world and laughing about it.
Whenever someone tries to speak up or fight back, they are pounded into the ground.
This is the world we live in. This is what the american people voted for, this is what they wanted.
Enjoy it.
-Ash

And exactly how do you know this? Are you one of those men?

The general media is corrupt. Starts with the NYT works around to CNN.

[Accordionista]

Here in the UK it's expected that all newspapers have a certain political bias. You can read one story in say the sun (labour) and come across a completely different angle in another paper say the times (conservative). You forget that the news is pretty much one person's opinion on the matters. A reporter, funneling the facts into a concise 500 word column. That person has the pressure of keeping up the readers. The news is a business, they want to make profit. They'll tell us whatever they want so long as we keep buying their product!

Um perhaps going repetitive here. I don't think there's any such thing as 'truth'. Everything is subjective and so unless you witness an event for yourself, you'll never get what you can qualify as truth. Everything else is manipulated perception.

[Delta]

Hell yeah the media is biased, that why you have to get your news from more then one source, for example, if I want to know (hypotheticly) how the president is spinning his latest ****up, I turn on Fox news, which has a pretty open conserative bias. If I want to hear exagerations of the president's latest ****up, I would turn on one of the more liberally biased news networks. As I watch each network, I realize that both of them are probibly full of shit, but you can usually find one or two bits of truth if you dig through the spin and the crap.

[Undying]

Media=bias. Just check what their talking about the situation in Isrel and Lebanon, if I hadn't known better I'd think we Israeli are murderers and butchers :rolleye09:.

[chibo]

I turn on Fox news, which has a pretty open conserative bias.

You are aware that when Dick Cheney travels the country he specifically requests all his rooms be channeled to Faux News. I watch it from time to time and I'm just amazed at how much spin Fox news puts on their stories. Bill O Reilly's no spin zone lol classic...The guy seriously think he's costing France billions of dollars a year because he called a boycott on his show. Then threatened a boycott on Canada.....Fox News are you serious? American media is owned by 5 corporate companies. One example, General Electric owns NBC and all of it's news affiliates. General Electric makes the the governments technological military systems. They reap extreme profits during wartime. Do you seriously believe they are going to let NBC report what's really going on in Iraq?

[dragoneyes001]

no your not.

you get what they want you to hear see or read.

[Delta]

You are aware that when Dick Cheney travels the country he specifically requests all his rooms be channeled to Faux News.

Yeah I heard about that, kinda funny.

[SolBeowulf19]

The media is, from what i've seen, a very biased source. I know what they say happens, but it doesn't happen the way they say. I had a friend who was in the marines during the Iraqi incident. During one of the bombings on a palace, I can't remember the details of it so please forgive me if I make a mistake here, the news said there were no casualties, but he was seeing body-bag after body-bag being taken out of there. Also, the media and news has a history of being biased in order to either boost Patriotiscm, a cause of American involvment in the Cuban Revolution as well as even the papers and use of the Uncle Sam slogan during WWI, or to make us think that things in wars and fights aren't going as bad as they really are. What I've seen with Media and how one could deal with it, is to know what has happened has happened, but simply say that it might not have happened the way the news said it.

[AmenoKitarou]

Yeh media is bias, but there's good bias, and bad bias in my opinion.

Look back at the vietnam war, when reporters were far more agressive in exposing war crimes. The reporters are unrestricted and have a will to challenge and question those in power. They showed the public at that time, how gruesome war really was, and showed the recieving sides of the bombs and artilleries, not only the firing side. That, I think is good bias, when reporters take a broader view and show us what really is happening, if anything is happening. And showing us corruption and issues even if it's the people of their own country.

Journalists today do far less questioning and seem to be much more compfortable repeating the words of politicians. It's like that the media in this age is embedded into the government and the military. Today, we are often shown strategic procedures of wars, features of artilleries and weapons, almost as if we were watching a football game, or an action movie. That...is bad bias i think. Because they're fabricating war in such a way that it looks entertaining, we are manipulated to support the war (or at least we were supposed to), and that's what the government wants. They don't want a whole mob of people trying to stop their war campaign...~

[Delta]

Look back at the vietnam war, when reporters were far more agressive in exposing war crimes. The reporters are unrestricted and have a will to challenge and question those in power. They showed the public at that time, how gruesome war really was, and showed the recieving sides of the bombs and artilleries, not only the firing side. That, I think is good bias, when reporters take a broader view and show us what really is happening, if anything is happening. And showing us corruption and issues even if it's the people of their own country.

Thats not good bias, thats telling people exactly whats going on. In an ideal democratic society the free press's job is to make the innerworkings of the government and the people that make it up known to the people. They're supposed to report the actions of their government back to the people so the people have a good idea about what the people they elected are doing, to make sure they are doing what they told the people they would do when they were elected. If they dont do that, the people dont elect them again. In order to be a well informed voter people need to know about their government and what it's doing. This ideal is called transparency. Obviously governments need to keep some secrets from it's people, especially when it comes to certain military secrets ect. but overall the people should have a pretty good idea of what the government is doing. And once you're reasonably sure the government isnt using it's military strength to make big oil companies richer, or illigally wiretaping your phoneline, then you can move on to reporting that a bird with a nest outside the US treasury building has eggs that are hatching (no joke, that was a Fox news alert I saw once, must not have been much going on that day huh?).

[SHiKaMaRi]

The media doesn't let the truth get to us. They exagerate it, and modify the truth. For example, my friends house burned down, due to the fact she left the heater on. However, when it got on the daily news, they exagerated it and said she placed her blanket over the heater. That is far off the truth.

[nikuwadoko]

sometimes no news is good news. Really, unconsciously we're all avoiding the truth. So isn't it a good thing we don't get the true story? Plus too much information is just to confuse.

[mooks]

News is not news anymore... It's full of Political analysts, chief correspondants, and regional experts who inflict their opinion onto the public...

Every major news channel appears unbiased in there reporting but it's the language and the context in which they use it that is misleading... (rebels, insurgents and freedom fighters- are all basically terrorists.. for example)
Or the misrepresenting of unrefutable fact..

Especially for those who live outside of the US and usually get a completely different approach of journalism and media-
FOXNews for example... is a source of entertainment here in Europe- especially in France... there's a whole TV series dedicated to paroding FOX style news(Les,Guignols, sur Canal+)TeleZap on Canal+ just simply subtitle FOXNews programmes (I actually had trouble convincing some people that it's a real news broadcast). In Germany (Punkt TV, auf ProSieben) and the UK are catching up (Broken News, on BBC2, it's just spot-on and too funny).. Because to them it's almost unbelievable that such a faction of information media that is so far from the truth actually exists.

[Fect]

"Truth" is a loosely attached term used daily. We use it in the markets when we accept another's point of view as more representative of ourselves (when we say "I suppose that's true"). We use it in the media ("Truly this was a sight to behold"), and even in our own thoughts.

So what is truth? One could call it that which is correct. But couldn't an answer on a test be "correct" and yet not true? Another might say "it's something that is known." But aren't we fed propoganda by others (even our neighbors)?

Truth is what we struggle for and achieve through our logic. We use what which we pm;u see, and create freedom from non-truth. Once we have a "truth," we take it on a crusade against "non-believers" and until our own judgement has been defeated, we continue to pursue and fight for a truth.



So the media is finding us the truth they want us to see. However, their struggle has become much harder since the deveopment of new technology, and yet while some may be "analysts" they are only human. They assert their own truth, and represent it in everything they do. Anything is unachievable otherwise. They allow us to put the images in order of what is more important than the next. They continue to represent a truth, even if it is "truly bipartisan."

[dragoneyes001]

yet in the context of the OP's question truth would mean are we getting the facts and all the underlying reasons behind a particular media subject.

when the US government says it wants Saddam Hussein out of power because he's a threat to the US they are telling one truth economically he was a threat to the US yet they never mentioned this instead they accused him of developing WMDs to convince the general public that S.Hussein was a physical threat (even with everyone knowing he had NO way of actually delivering even the most potent WMD he could produce.)
this is not a partisan move by the media its outright lies fed to the media.

[chipp zanuff]

I think they do not say the truth all the time, some times they change the truth according to their situation, I mean if they are in war they will locked in many news specially if it is local media

[prelude]

journalism died right after the tv was created!Look ,when u are talking about the truth u have to take into consideration that journalists are also human beeings like all the rest!i am journalist also, and believe me that i am always trying to get the news as closer to the truth that i can! The facts are always facts but consider that we try making the as appealing as we can, thats what u all expect us to do! Now about the war : its true that USs media are under the control of the us goverment, the same principal unfortunately abidies all over the world! But when u are seeing an ancorman reporting the news have in mind that he is not saying what we reporters have covered or found out! every article, correspandance is beeing filtered by editors_chief editors and others!

[chipp zanuff]

I’m not saying that they leis because they want, maybe they will not talk about any issues if they were under pressure

[prelude]

can u pease rephraze or explain what u saying? sorry but i dont understand your point

[chipp zanuff]

Ok, I was talking about people who are working in media, some times they say lies because they can’t say the truth, like what is happening in Israel now,they are in war so they don’t tell their people the truth, they hide the truth or change it .

[hikari_taicho]

Does the media deliver the truth to the public? Of course not. Most of the news is filled with sensationalist stories, and people modifying truth, as shikamari-san said. I think that the freedom of the press is used too freely.
It's like Yellow Lettering is going to come around again soon.

[Bi Ryu]

it's been a well established fact for several years that many newsgroups use hype to get more ratings. though these days, I believe they are going WAY overboard (case in point, several news stations & programs talking about whether the end of the world is coming).

at this point, it seems that they feel obligated to 'scare' you into watching the news, I personally have always seen it as a reminder to take few things at face value.

[ajames]

IMO the only objective fact on news is; Weather phenomena, Statistics relating to deaths/injurys in light of #1 or of war, and Stock Market #'s - if you consider that to be news.

[chibo]

generally the most truth you will see in the news, is when the story is first unfolding.

[*Hollow*Ichigo]

ITS ALL LIES it always is they have no time so they assume wats true

[p0rkfri3drice]

most of the media is definitely biased out there. have any of you seen that picture taken of condoleezza rice? if you have, you should know what i am talking about. let me try to look for the link to that one video.

edit: i cant find it >,< but its that one article about how they took a picture of condoleezza rice during an interview session. it looked as if she was nervous and out of words in the picture, but in reality, she was just fixing her hair. she has been fixing her hair the whole interview, but that "nervous" rice picture showed up in tons of covers. those tricky media folks always seem to get us.

[Kzimask]

LOL you know, people who said News are giving us 'only' the true facts, well you need to look at the News paper more carefully.

Me and my teacher actualy 'studied' if the news articals or news in TV are fake or not and we found out that 10% are all fake and never happened or existed inncident/issues. But I guess most of the News are telling the truth so maybe people believes what everything news says... Its pretty sad though...

[chiking1]

The news is always 'filtered' by the government even if they allow free speech. This is because some countries do not want their citizens or other countries to know about the bad stuff. For example, while you are in China, the images shown on google for the search "Tian An Men" shows recent pictures of people holding hands and being happy. However, the same search done on google from other countries, show tanks and the military shooting at the students (which was what happened during the Mao Ze Dong Era)

[isthatsodesuka]

There is few news media these days with pure objectivity. With the advent of corporate takeovers, producers feel obligated to slant certain information . They are hesistant to broadcast or release information that may slight a political party their corporation is backing. If we the people want pure objective facts, we must simply sift through all the information given to us and decide for ourselves what the truth really is.

[MasterWordSmith]

Did anyone see that video of George W. Bush flicking off the news camera before a broad cast? That was most likely the funniest thing I've ever seen. They never showed that on the news. >.>

[Wolfman Walt]

My problem with the news is that it's no longer the news really. It seems just to be editorials in order to bring you "The whole story." You no longer get the "Who, why, where, when, what, and how." You get how people felt, and what they think of things. I honestly see very little difference these days between "The Daily Show," which is suppossed to be a 'fake news show' but has since basically become intermixed with Jon Stewarts personal views, and most news "Shows" on regular networks.

[Undying]

Media is nothing but lies. Too many of them lie for anyone to be sure anything they say is true. Here's a good example:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/SankonGanSou/WashingtonPost.jpg

You will notice that the guy in the back, the one marked with a red cyrcle, is getting up. A little too much alive for a "corpse killed by the Israeli bombers", eh?

[mooks]

Perfect example of media manipulation and false pretense...

[tha sandman]

i think that most of the times we are givin only partial truth from the media...

[frouella]

Keep in mind that the major news outlets (television, newspapers, news magazines, etc.) are owned by large corporations, and are funded by advertising from other large corporations. This creates a built-in conflict of interest, and additionally shifts the emphasis from what should actually be considered news to what stories work best to increase the companies' bottom line.

I would suggest reading some Noam Chomsky, since he has some interesting things to say about this very topic. I know some people don't seem to like him very much (**cough-conservatives-cough**), but he does have some valuable insight. I won't go into everything he has to say (mostly 'cause I don't remember everything :sad:), but one of the most important pieces of advice he gave was to question everything you hear, whether it comes from the media or the government (or even Chomsky himself). Ask yourself, why are they telling me this? Is it to sway my opinion, or is it to distract me from something else? Chomsky is a lot more succinct and clear about it than I'm being, so you should check out his books first hand.

[isthatsodesuka]

I would suggest reading some Noam Chomsky, since he has some interesting things to say about this very topic. I know some people don't seem to like him very much (**cough-conservatives-cough**), but he does have some valuable insight. I won't go into everything he has to say (mostly 'cause I don't remember everything :sad:), but one of the most important pieces of advice he gave was to question everything you hear, whether it comes from the media or the government (or even Chomsky himself)
I definitely agree that Chomsky is an excellent source for those who question the mainstream mass media. To be more specific, the best souce for his opinion on the subject is Manufacturing Consent.
His most famous analysis is the constraints on speech used within the media in order to uphold corporate and government intetests.

[Kibe]

just like Ichigo's theme song.. :musak:

[yellow flash]

I believe for the most part the media trys to stay impartial and unbiased. However the information they present is the information they receive. While I'm sure they do their best to make sure all information is corroborated. Its not a difficult task especially for Government officials to manipulate to the flow of information to portray the situation in the best possible light.

[Hisaki]

Just an interesting tidbit...

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2815

$1.6 billion spent by the Bush administration to bribe the media into printing things that would make him and his policies look good.

The media can be reduced to little more than the arm of the government; when it's functioning normally, there's usually some inherent bias.

Researching facts surrounding incidents tends to be the best way to garner information about events, but that can be too time-consuming for the majority of people... Which makes it easier to shape and contort the views of the masses.

[James Cizuz]

No matter how far you look back, the goverment has been courrpt. They just get better at it over the years, now it's a business that fuels most of the world with Bull. The main country to blame is America, the goverment will do anything for power, and anything for money.(which springs the 9/11 theroy or as it should be "fact" now that the goverment organized it, but i'll leave that out because it's to hard to open the eyes of the blind).

[raisins]

almost all governments are more or less corrupted... just on a different degree. it is sure that greedy people exist all overthe world and corruption will be hard to avoid...

for the media, i'm sure not all is true, they will always have to potray the good side of the goverment and hide the ugly sides.and most of the articles are affected by the editors oppinion and stuff. Or perhaps just to make the news more interesting they would exagerate it...

i'm sure that our sources are either from the media or the internet and what we see might not be true however it gives us ideas whats happening in the world and contain at least some facts.

[kaede822]

most media corporations have links with the government..especially the large-scale media companies.. i was an editor in our school paper.. and our adviser has expressed to us that the reporters are already expressing bias, instead of presenting hard facts, they are placing their comments/opinions in it.. heck! its so d*mn obvious that large media companies have biases for government officials.. and worst, they make big deals out of evrything.. like for example, there was a group who expressed their disagreement about the current administration..and they report it on tv, radio and print like its as if it was that large!! and people having the impression that it is, they also join in making things worse!!!

[Wolfman Walt]

http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp

I thought this was interesting and relevant to the discussion.

[Kazmiz]

yes, and no

The news is after all just another tv program, so it will want to get as high rating as possible, that's why it will show you the news the people in charge think will atract you most. It can also be used as a political instrument, e.g in italy 3 major channels are owned by the ex-prime minister's family; you can imagine how usefull that can be. So naturaly news topics are manipulated to become more interesting to the general public, because they want more people to watch. You're better off getting your info online, at least there you have a great number of sources a click away.

[grieversangel]

I really don't think that we are. Things happen that the government doesn't want to get out. But i do believe that things are being hidden so that the government does get a rebellion from the people and also because they don't want people to be scared. But people shoud have the choice of hearing the truth or not. We should hold the power of the desisions in our lives!!!!

[mind_fissure]

try listening to talk radio or political radio, its the most uncorrupted form of news in my opinion.

[Fect]

Silly 1-Liners, Trix aren't for you.

[Avenger]

Media is only there to control people.It is never tells the truth but it tells what authority wants.We live in a corrupted world.