From A Demon's Nest of Sentiments

[thewayne]

Unenlightenment forms the granitic foundation of all decision-making on Earth.

A half-baked, easily manipulated citizenry flourishes only where the air is rich with political gobbledygook, eyewash and tergiversating bushwah; which is why the news media and the ruling bestiary are so stingy and selective in meting out fact. Reporters and politicians are pimps for ignorance.

http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2014/10/19

I read Walter Cronkite's autobiography probably 15-20 years ago, and he related what was a very sad incident that bodes ill for all. In it, while he was reporting the news at CBS, an edict came down from upon high that the news wing of CBS would be monitored by the Nielson Ratings people. Just monitored, they didn't need to worry about it. Then after the monitoring some bright C-level moron decided that the news should earn ratings, just like every other division of CBS in order to sell more advertising.

This was the beginning of the end for quality news.

I actually met Uncle Walter at a book signing, I opted out of shaking his hand as he looked absolutely miserable. A couple of weeks after the even he had major bypass surgery.

This is why I read a half-dozen, sometimes more, online news sources. One does its best to be as objective as possible, and I think it does a good job. The others lean towards liberal, but still present good reporting. I'm constantly impressed by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: whenever she explains something complex, then brings on a subject matter expert, she always asks them if what she just explained was accurate. Most of the time she's spot-on, on occasion they correct or amplify a point or two.

Comments

[silveradept]

And the few times when the politicians say she's misquoted them or taken it out of context, Dr. Maddow usually repeats the quote back to them and asks what's the issue. Cue foot-in-mouth.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I remember a Maddow Moment where she was interviewing a Congressional Wannabe from the Pacific Northwest, I don't recall his name, but he was a real nutter. If it's the guy that I'm thinking of, he had ties to the medical community but I don't think he's a practicing physician. Anyway, she called him out on a serious inconsistency, and he denied it, and she rolled video of him making the statement, and he continued denying it! It was amazing to watch, she re-airs the footage occasionally as this guy likes making the news.

[silveradept]

I think that was the person I was thinking of as my example. It takes a certain set of something to deny your own words on tape.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

TV news is a pretty terrible place to be, these days, and not just in the US. (Not that professional journalism as a whole is exactly thriving, but there are at least rising stars amidst the weblogs, notably Marcy Wheeler, and the FireDogLake crew) Even in the UK, the erstwhile Question Time's long been populated by panels of pundits rather than experts, and even Newsnight's primed their guests expecting one line of questioning, only to have something quite irrelevant launched upon them instead - very disappointing, as Jeremy Paxman is/was a top-notch interviewer, quite dogged in his determination to deflect pre-prepared soundbites in pursuit of an actual answer.

Jon Snow is one of the few who stand out now, letting Channel 4 News punch way above its weight. Al Jazeera sometimes has some quite illuminating perspectives, as well.

We now have access to so very much information - but the populace all too often doesn't take much advantage of it all, let alone the problem of information overload.