Revived, phoenix-like from the ashes of neglect...The mildly presumptuous blog of a center-Left liberal from the heart of Baltimore. Still ONE HUNDRED PERCENT ANTI-HYSTERIA.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Foibles of Modern Journalism Notwithstanding,
This isn't just an overstatement, this is outright bomb-throwing hysteria. Don't get me wrong, the media truly needs to do a better job in practically every area, but the way Dick McDonald tells it, you'd think..well I'll just let you read it.
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
It seems like a crazy statement, and then I talk to friends of mine who are highly educated, smart, successful, and have quality BS detectors, and they are blissfully unaware of so many basic concepts/stories/incidences of media bias that I can only conclude that for most people, the info is not getting through. Conspiracy is a strong word, but what else would you reasonably call it?
It's not bomb-throwing hysteria, it's hyperbole. The guy is basically correct in all respects. Note he didn't say that everything in the right-wing blogosphere is truth; he said that truth can only be found there, if anywhere. You sure won't find it ANYWHERE in the MSM. They have become an industry of professional liars.
As a scientist in industry, I see daily examples of disinformation in the media that cannot only be due to inattention or honest errors. McDonald urgently expresses the exasperation I feel for what we keep being fed.
It's no secret that media can hardly be trusted to give us accurate news anymore, but the idea that only the righty blogs have the answers is silly. The way McDonald tells it reeks of the our side is mostly good, their side is all evil" rhetoric, and isn't helpful.
Speaking of professional liars... I think it's odd that Instapundit would make this point by linking to Matt Sanchez blog. Sanchez is a former gay porn star and a self-confessed prostitute who used to service male clients.
I don't care if he's left right or center. I'll take the word of a whore with a very large grain of salt. Especially if the military is looking into allegations that the whore defrauded fellow veterans out of $12000.
I have been interviewed by the press 4 times over 20 years, always regarding civil court cases I was conducting. The interviews were in-depth and in all cases by 'senior' journalists.
They got damn near everything wrong. They were 4 of the stupidest, most ignorant, people I had ever met. Many of my legal friend laugh themselves silly whenever the press reports anything about their cases. It takes true idiocy to be wrong that often.
Of course the MSM is all BS, but never claim conspiracy when stupidity will do.
The real question is why would anyone ever rely on them for anything but light entertainment?
"I see daily examples of disinformation in the media that cannot only be due to inattention or honest errors."
Hanlon's Razor still applies; _you_ would never make such errors, nor I (and I'm not a scientist), but any intersection of mainstream journalism and science is almost certainly going to result in gross errors.
but the idea that only the righty blogs have the answers is silly
Fair point
but any intersection of mainstream journalism and science is almost certainly going to result in gross errors.
I suppose underestimating the ignorance and stupidity of reporters is a losing proposition, but come on. Global warming is complicated, but it's not rocket surgery. Even I can digest Al Gore's argument and admit where he's right. How do 99% of reporters not even seem to know there's scientific dissent, and a lot of it, from those in the damn field of study? It's deliberate.
I left journalism after 7 years of being the only nonliberal at editorial board meetings, and I wasn't even political at the time, just appalled at the echo chamber environment. The Society for Professional Journalists runs a survey with regularity, and every time the members self-report as like 80% or more liberal democrat. It's not by mistake that we're getting one side of most stories.
Hey, maybe Diane Feinstein will use the fairness doctrine to get the New York Times to run Rush Limbaugh columns.
10 comments:
It seems like a crazy statement, and then I talk to friends of mine who are highly educated, smart, successful, and have quality BS detectors, and they are blissfully unaware of so many basic concepts/stories/incidences of media bias that I can only conclude that for most people, the info is not getting through. Conspiracy is a strong word, but what else would you reasonably call it?
It's not bomb-throwing hysteria, it's hyperbole. The guy is basically correct in all respects. Note he didn't say that everything in the right-wing blogosphere is truth; he said that truth can only be found there, if anywhere. You sure won't find it ANYWHERE in the MSM. They have become an industry of professional liars.
As a scientist in industry, I see daily examples of disinformation in the media that cannot only be due to inattention or honest errors.
McDonald urgently expresses the exasperation I feel for what we keep being fed.
It's no secret that media can hardly be trusted to give us accurate news anymore, but the idea that only the righty blogs have the answers is silly. The way McDonald tells it reeks of the our side is mostly good, their side is all evil" rhetoric, and isn't helpful.
Speaking of professional liars... I think it's odd that Instapundit would make this point by linking to Matt Sanchez blog. Sanchez is a former gay porn star and a self-confessed prostitute who used to service male clients.
I would like you to show how he is wrong.
Who in the left wing is not telling us false and slanted info.
I don't care if he's left right or center. I'll take the word of a whore with a very large grain of salt. Especially if the military is looking into allegations that the whore defrauded fellow veterans out of $12000.
I have been interviewed by the press 4 times over 20 years, always regarding civil court cases I was conducting. The interviews were in-depth and in all cases by 'senior' journalists.
They got damn near everything wrong. They were 4 of the stupidest, most ignorant, people I had ever met. Many of my legal friend laugh themselves silly whenever the press reports anything about their cases. It takes true idiocy to be wrong that often.
Of course the MSM is all BS, but never claim conspiracy when stupidity will do.
The real question is why would anyone ever rely on them for anything but light entertainment?
"I see daily examples of disinformation in the media that cannot only be due to inattention or honest errors."
Hanlon's Razor still applies; _you_ would never make such errors, nor I (and I'm not a scientist), but any intersection of mainstream journalism and science is almost certainly going to result in gross errors.
but the idea that only the righty blogs have the answers is silly
Fair point
but any intersection of mainstream journalism and science is almost certainly going to result in gross errors.
I suppose underestimating the ignorance and stupidity of reporters is a losing proposition, but come on. Global warming is complicated, but it's not rocket surgery. Even I can digest Al Gore's argument and admit where he's right. How do 99% of reporters not even seem to know there's scientific dissent, and a lot of it, from those in the damn field of study? It's deliberate.
I left journalism after 7 years of being the only nonliberal at editorial board meetings, and I wasn't even political at the time, just appalled at the echo chamber environment. The Society for Professional Journalists runs a survey with regularity, and every time the members self-report as like 80% or more liberal democrat. It's not by mistake that we're getting one side of most stories.
Hey, maybe Diane Feinstein will use the fairness doctrine to get the New York Times to run Rush Limbaugh columns.
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