Off Topic Can we trust the press?

Lots of discussion about fake news in the media at the mo. what with social media etc etc

Here is my starter

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Murdoch and his unfettered access to no 10

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...ng-street-theresa-may-david-cameron?CMP=fb_gu

 

We can trust the press to select headlines and soundbites that will catch the attention of those with a short concentration span. I no longer believe we can trust them to either undertake thorough research or to draw valid conclusions from what data they do find. Sometimes this appears to be about the need for rapid news; other times it appears to be a lack of precision in language or a desperate to need to make every sentence sound dramatic. Hence, every reporter I hear currently seems to think everything is 'incredible'...it really isn't!

 

Isn't what most of what the Guardian publishes fake?

 

The newspaper industry seems to me to be in terminal decline. Why buy a paper if you can get the same thing on-line free? With declining sales of paper copies falling each year, so does the advertising revenue. Decent journalists have been replaced very often with cheaper options to save money. Some newspapers can hardly go under that name anymore as if they carry any real news it will be a short item hidden away on page 30. The days of reporting facts without opinion seems to be too hard for some to grapple with, so a large headline telling us that some minor celebrity is having an affair with someone other than their partner will draw many towards spending a little money. My local daily paper has four or five pages of proper news items reporting what is happening, very often with charts and graphs. No slant on it, just facts, but then they still sell copies because they charge to use the web-site.

 

I think the needs for immediate news had really changed things..... and yes journalism at the mass market end has seemingly declined even further. I do believe and trying to be very and balanced that the investigative journalism in papers such as the guardian and the times and to a lesser degree the telegraph is still of a good standards.... but yes... less readership year on year.

I read and posted on what i believed to be a true story on FB... only to be told and shown that it was fake..... so dfficult to tell with so many internet site and publishers...I am realising that if you dont know the source ' news' on FB is likely to be fake...

 

Can we trust the press? In a sense - yes. We can trust them to come up with garbage like this -

http://archive.is/Ir5P7#selection-1133.9-1133.70

A Tory taunts a homeless man by burning a £20 note in front of him - and the Mirror attempt to turn it into an anti-SNP story by dredging up a tenuous link to Nicola Sturgeon, the Tory being the nephew of her sister-in-law's ex-husband, whom she has never even met.

Makes you wonder if there is a referendum in the air...

 

Not yet BB, hold your horses. It will be forgotten before a referendum happens.

 

I don't think the Scottish nation would EVER forget the foolish burning of money!

 

The only one i trust is wobby then a long way behind that the "BBC" web site "

 

That I doubt - this was the sort of tripe that was proliferated before the last one. It gets picked up by MSM who run with it then mothball it for a few months before repeating it - and spread it on social media, where the same process happens ad nauseum. With the rumour regarding an impending announcement from Holyrood gaining legs, this is probably just the start.

 

Even if it was an English banknote?

 

If a Scotsman can spend it, it's money!

 

We tend not to spend - preferring to save...

 

Don't know if anyone has ever read - or even heard of - this guy. He has a way with words, and does a good job (in my opinion anyway) of unravelling and debunking the strange spin that MSM seem to apply to all things Scottish - usually with a healthy dose of humour.

https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/the-crumbling-wall-2/

 

Liverpool FC has banned The Sun journalists from its grounds over the newspaper's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.

The newspaper has been widely boycotted in the city following a campaign by the Total Eclipse of The S*n group.

Its journalists will no longer be allowed on site to cover matches and press conferences.

It seems odd that it has taken so long. If ever proof was required that you cannot trust the press, this is it.

 

Daily Mail called out by Wikipedia.

http://www.westmonster.com/wikipedia-bans-daily-mail-as-a-source/

 

My Dad taught me at a very early age not to trust anything you read in the newspapers except, perhaps, for the date. His first job from school was as a runner for Reuters.

 

It's interesting how quickly people start to believe things once they're written down. Take Wikipedia for example...

 

BBC being guilty of the sin of omission - or just plain biased?

 

I don't think so BB. In a News 24 piece there was a section where they broadcast some of his speech.