It seems there is an overwhelming belief that the news outlets in the US are based in “Free Speech” and, because of that, what they report to the American public is true, fairly unbiased, and not filtered by the government.
Sure.
This is another case of educated people remaining ignorant of what is going on around them, and believing everything they are told. After all, ignorant people are easy to lead.
Most of us know Fox News is Republican oriented and biased towards the Tea Party. But what about CNN and others?
On February 3, 2014, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield was reporting on the death of Robert Seymour Hoffman. She was discussing with Dr. Drew Pinsky the large list of prescription drugs (without a prescription) that Hoffman was taking as well as heroin. Dr. Drew mentioned that the list of drugs were all detox drugs, and he believed Hoffman was trying to detox himself. Banfield quickly shut that conversation, and you never heard the detox message again – only the message of how many drugs (including heroin) Hoffman was taking.
Why? Because it garners more viewers to paint a picture of a famous actor dying of multiple drugs, than one who was trying to detox himself and messed up.
How about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Sochi? Rather than focusing on the beautiful opening ceremonies and the athletes, the NBC newscasters repeatedly politicized everything possible. “Putin is trying to prove to the world…”, “Putin is against gays…”, “Putin has to prove…”. I can assure you, Putin does not care about politics and the Olympics. He cares about the athletes. But you need to understand him and the Russian population to fully understand their view of the Olympics.
And of course, we had USA Today (and others) commenting on the German’s “thinly veiled political statement […] anti-gay laws,” while the Germans themselves say “the uniforms were not a protest.”
How about the Sochi dogs stories running around the news, and their Russian billionaire savior? Again, sort of a one-sided “Animal Rights” story that has not much basis in facts on either side.
And of course we have the German interview with Edward Snowden that was quashed from US news.
Point is, people need to use more skepticism about what they see in the news and other media outlets. Take the stories with a grain of salt, and before going off half-cocked about what the news is pushing, do a little research. There are other opinions, other facts, and a larger world view.
After all, there are always three sides to every story – yours, theirs, and the truth.
