You Cannot Trust Big Media
This is a simple statement, and most regulars have already heard it. But for the new people, it bears repeating.
You cannot trust Big Media.
Big Media might get it right, sure. But it also might get it wrong. As I have demonstrated for weeks with the Roman Polanski saga, Big Media does get it wrong, regularly.
Regularly.
And if you tell them they got it wrong, chances are they’ll just ignore you.
You’re stuck getting most of your information from Big Media. But for God’s sake, view it with a critical eye.
Because for the most part, it’s not an engine for truth. Sorry, but it just isn’t.
Whatever happened to the standard demanding that one double check if one’s mother loves him if she says she does?
Ed from SFV (4b493e) — 10/22/2009 @ 9:57 pmYou cannot trust Big Media. You’re stuck getting most of your information from Big Media. But for God’s sake, view it with a critical eye. On this Colbert and Stewart may disagree.
Because for the most part, it’s not an engine for truth. Sorry, but it just isn’t. On this Colbert and Stewart might agree. It’s an engine for profit… so bring on ‘Sybil the Soothsayer.’ And of course the White House pinned the ‘tale on the Foxy’ as not being a real news source at all. ‘Men In Black’ showed us that the ‘National Enquirer’ and ‘News Of The World’ are the real truth tellers.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 10/22/2009 @ 10:13 pmDCSCA:
I’m sorry to hear about your problems at school.
Did you talk to your counselor?
Sincerely,
Debby
Ag80 (2a7a2a) — 10/22/2009 @ 10:17 pmDCSCA came from Big Media, among his wide ranging and colorful careers, as the legend goes, proving the title of this post.
daleyrocks (718861) — 10/22/2009 @ 10:22 pmWell, considering the consistency of rest of the stories by this person, I kinda am doubtful about what you have written, daley. Does the mailroom count?
Eric Blair (dd11cc) — 10/22/2009 @ 10:30 pmThe premise, I mean, daley.
And Ag80, you crack me up.
Eric Blair (dd11cc) — 10/22/2009 @ 10:31 pmYou’re right, Patterico. Before I started reading more sources on the internet, I used to read one or two newspapers every day and a handful of magazines each week. It was a disappointment to realize how unreliable print media can be, but it’s also liberating because it made me start thinking more carefully about what I read.
DRJ (dff2ca) — 10/22/2009 @ 11:00 pmPatterico – You’ve been demonstrating the unreliability of Big Media for a lot longer than mere weeks.
DRJ – I concur, and used to read the LAT daily, along with many other newsmags.
My realization wasn’t that just the print media was unreliable, but that all media is unreliable. That includes this site.
The difference is that when presented with an error, Patterico immediately notes it and makes the correction for all to see.
Which is why I continue to read this site, and am less and less concerned with reading the LAT.
No person can rely on any one or even a few sources. Everyone gets it wrong now and then.
It’s what happens after the error is discovered that solidifies or destroys trust. That is something Big Media seems to have forgotten.
Apogee (e2dc9b) — 10/22/2009 @ 11:09 pmMSM determine in advance what they will report. The facts are only useful if they support their narrative.
Arch (73e14a) — 10/23/2009 @ 2:38 amThe Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect: Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. …You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. …[Y]ou read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story — and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. — Michael Crichton
RNB (6a1e7d) — 10/23/2009 @ 4:29 amIt is called hypothesis drive reporting but with bad hypotheses.
To the select few, does this apply to Shakira reporting too?
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/23/2009 @ 5:54 amI’d rather listen to Shakira than some numbnuts like Rick “Manslaughter/DUI” Sanchez and others of his ilk.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/23/2009 @ 7:04 amAhhh Rick Sanchez …. mama huevo hijo puta. Sanctimonious “hit and run” reporter … double entendre on purpose.
Yes, even Baba Streisand is preferable to Rick. Ever hear her “Ave Maria?” Thing of beauty.
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/23/2009 @ 7:36 amI e-mailed the WaPo reporters who lied about James O’Keefe’s motivations “too many minorities”.
Richard Aubrey (a9ba34) — 10/23/2009 @ 7:38 amI pointed out that Bertha Lewis was repeating their lie.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
There’s an article missing in there, heaven sent, but the sentiment is right
bishop (996c34) — 10/23/2009 @ 8:46 amMr Aubrey – Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response, much less a correction.
JD (d16764) — 10/23/2009 @ 8:55 amEver hear her “Ave Maria?” Thing of beauty.
Can’t say that I have, but I was inundated with her horrid, cornpone dog – whistle ballads during my adolescent years. Crap like “Evergreen,” “People,” “You Don’t Send me Flowers” and the truly excreable Motown – Lite faux Get – Down – and – Boogie – White – Brighton – Beach – Girl “Stoney End.” I do agree that she’s got a heck of a voice, but blech on much of her work.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/23/2009 @ 8:55 amDMAC,
Well, Ave Maria is not exactly subject to much interpretation or re-write and since she does have the pipes …..
…. her other music is what it is. Don’t much like most of it either but there are some keepers to the Disco Fan in me.
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/23/2009 @ 9:14 amThe difference is that when presented with an error, Patterico immediately notes it and makes the correction for all to see.
And that’s one of the ethical points I admire about good bloggers, a point the MSM has yet to learn. Even if you get a MSM correction, it’s often like pulling teeth. A writer for the Poynter Institute, of all places, badly botched a description of a newspaper video series “On The Cheap,” done by the Morning Call in PA. (A friend of mine is the actor in the video series.)
The writer refused to admit error, then placed a measly excuse for a correction in the article, but failed to note the error. Finally, after my friend and I pressed the matter, another Poynter staffer looked into it and saw that a truly corrected version of the article was posted.
Read the article and then read the comments, from the bottom up.
This is what to expect from the MSM, in a best-case scenario. Usually, they’ll just pretend the error doesn’t exist and hope nobody notices. Gack.
[note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (592a1f) — 10/23/2009 @ 9:29 amAve Maria is big deal in SW Florida, or was till the real estate boom went bust. It’s a new planned Catholic community out near the Corkscrew Swamp, incomplete but with a university, and run by a pizza king.
ropelight (2db5c9) — 10/23/2009 @ 12:21 pmAre you referring to the former head of Domino’s, Tom Monaghan? He’s been a big contributor to Catholic causes over the past few decades.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/23/2009 @ 1:30 pmI read the LA Times for at least 40 years. At one time, I read five newspapers and have been a heavy consumer of history reading for 50 years and more. I read Grant’s Memoirs in college, for example. I have been increasingly unable to believe what I read in newspapers for the past 25 years, since Reagan was elected. I’m reading the second volume of Hayward’s Age of Reagan. That really was the tipping point when the Democratic Party went off the rails. Many have forgotten just how vicious the news media were toward Reagan. The Democrat Congressmen’s letters to the communist regime in Grenada that were captured, and that sort of stuff.
It didn’t start with Bush. Unfortunately, he was less able to fight them off but it was not a new phenomenon.
Mike K (addb13) — 10/23/2009 @ 2:48 pmSomebody’s Law: Everything you see in the media is accurate except for the things you personally know about. And that’s true for everyone.
Jim C. (b33a68) — 10/23/2009 @ 10:17 pm#21, Dmac, yes, Tom’s backing the project, and it doesn’t look like there’s much going on out there regarding real estate sales. The community is isolated, only partly developed, and waiting for godot.
ropelight (91c668) — 10/24/2009 @ 3:27 pm