All the News that Fits Our Squint
The Myths of Mainstream Media and How to Think About the News
I have a healthy, informed distrust for Mainstream Media.
It grew stronger when I discovered that MSM consistently underreported
the numbers of pro-life attendees at the national March for Life Rallies. For example, pictures of the 2016 rally show
perhaps 40,000 people, in a blizzard. The NY Times reported that hundreds were
there. (https://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=17444)
This is a typical MSM procedure. Hundreds gathered is a
factual statement, but not a true report. There were many, many more than 100. The
message communicated by the Times is therefore false.
If a child told his mother he ate
one cookie when he was told not to eat any, but in reality, had eaten 4, would
that build trust between his mother and him?
It is a fact that he ate one cookie. But it is not the whole truth. When
Mom learns of his subterfuge will she consider him deceitful? He was deliberately
trying to hide the truth.
Whether deliberate or not the
MSM hides the truth. A healthy distrust is justified.
The Objectives of News Reporting
Edward Jay Epstein was allowed
entry to the newsroom of an NBC affiliate to conduct research for a doctoral
dissertation. His question was this. “To
what extent are the directions that large organizations take-whether they are
political parties, city governments, business corporations, or whatever-
determined by pressure to satisfy internal needs rather than by external
circumstances or even long-range goals?” Is this what we should expect from a news reporting business? That they direct
their affairs to satisfy their own needs? Epstein’s findings became a book
called News from Nowhere.
Here are some of his
conclusions.
“The key to explaining the
particular “outputs” of organizations lay in defining the basic requirements
which an organization needs to maintain itself.”
This mandated “treating a news
service as a business organization rather than as a collective faculty for
highly independent newsmen—i.e., ‘the press.’ The particular output, the
formulation of “news,” might then be explicable in terms of what the news
organization had to do to stay in business. How successful this approach
would prove depends, of course, on the degree to which “news” is selected
and shaped by the organization, as well on assumptions about organizational
behavior.”
“Some news stories are delayed
from one day to two weeks, because of certain organizational needs and
policies.”
“A case in point is an NBC news
story about the inauguration of a high-speed train service between Montreal and
Toronto. While the NBC crew was filming the turbotrain during its inaugural run
to Toronto, it collided with—and “sliced in half,” as one newspaper put it—a
meat trailer-truck, and then suffered a complete mechanical breakdown on the
return trip. Persistent “performance flaws” and subsequent breakdowns
eventually led to a temporary suspension of the service. None of these
accidents and aberrations were included in the filmed story broadcast two
weeks later on the NBC evening news. David Brinkley, keeping to the
original story, written before the event, introduced the film by saying, “The
only high-speed train now running in North America has just begun in Canada.”
Four and a half minutes of shots of the streamlined train followed, and the
narration suggested that this foreshadowed the future of transportation, since
Canada’s “new turbo just might shake [American] lethargy” in developing such
trains.” (The announcement of the suspension of the service was not carried on
the program.)
“Video files of the Viet Nam
war were delayed occasionally because it was cheaper to send them by plane than
to transmit through a satellite broadcast. Policy dictated that stories about
disorders and potential disorders, PTSD, related to the war would not be
covered live.”
During the riots that followed
the assassination of Martin Luther King, NBC News apparently decided to minimize
the extent of the violence in New York City. The producer later said that it
was his responsibility to “evaluate all the information, including the
social context” of a news event and then “decide how it should be presented.”
Fast forward to 2011 when
economic concerns forced many news outlets to cut their budgets, notably CNN. “This
reality led news networks to substitute opinion for news reporting.” Not much
effort is taken to explain where news ends, and opinion begins.
Epstein concludes. “Network
news is still a product manufactured by organizations with economic and
political needs. As these requisites have changed, network news operations have
become less substantial in their coverage of hard news. Such journalistic
anemia is not the fault of the producers and newsmen. It proceeds from the
change in the ways the organizations for whom they work are regulated by the
government, make money for their parent corporations, and respond to
competition from other media. Much has changed since I wrote News From
Nowhere, but what remains constant is the extent to which network news’
selection of reality depends on organizational considerations.” Every news
outlet edits the news. We may do well to ask why each story has been selected
for broadcast among all the others available.
News is big business and primarily
oriented toward staying in business, no matter how.
The Dangers of Irresponsible
Reporting
124 years ago the NY Times
appeared with its well-known ‘covenant,’ as it was once called, “all the news
that’s fit to print.” I titled this
blog, “All the News that Fits our Squint.” The Times, world’s most powerful news
source, operates as squinty-eyed as every other MSM outlet, focusing on news
that is good for business, whether true or false. Here are some examples.
Times editors, in 2016, allowed
an uninvestigated story about innocent Duke University lacrosse players to be
published as if they were absolutely guilty.
The Newspaper held firmly to
the tale that on January 6, 2021, Police Officer Brian Sicknik had been killed
by rioting crowds. He actually died of natural causes.
The Times recently claimed
that former president Bush will not support a Trump re-election bid. Fred Ford,
a recognized spokesman for Bush, exposed the Times report as completely fabricated.
A few weeks ago, the paper ‘scrubbed’
its pages of the tale that Border Patrol agents were whipping immigrants with
the reins of their horses. At least someone in the newsroom had the good sense
to listen to one of the agents who was there. (https://bit.ly/2ZasE9K.)
Another bogus news story has
become a headliner. New York Times Admits Anti-Trump 'Steele Dossier' Was
Fake.
(If you want more on
the century-old Times false reporting you may want to read The Gray Lady
Winked, by Ashley Rindsberg.)
Quite often it is foreign news
agencies that provide the rest of the story. Here is a headline from the Daily
Mail, May 30, 2021. Liberal media FINALLY admit they made a mistake
dismissing Wuhan Lab leak theory just because Trump backed it: Washington Post,
New York Times and ABC pundits say some 'have egg on their face.' (https://bit.ly/3lXsQCi)
We are very often told of the
disparity in white versus black police shootings. The statistical reality is this. “On the most
extreme use of force, FOIS, fatal officer-involved shooting, we find no
racial difference in either the raw data or when contextual factors are
taken into account.” (Roland G. Fryer Jr., “An Empirical Analysis of Racial
Differences in Police Use of Force,” Journal of Political Economy.)
Michael Brown did not have his
hands up in Ferguson, MO when he was shot by Darren Wilson. That claim was fabricated by ‘witnesses,’
some of whom were not even there. https://bit.ly/3lZ174g
Almost 5 million Americans watch
primetime cable TV news every day. https://www.statista.com/statistics/373814/cable-news-network-viewership-usa/
What difference does this make?
The Effect of Television
Neal Postman described the
effects of television on our culture in his iconic book, Amusing Ourselves to
Death. I first read this expose in 1990 and I am thankful for its impact on my
approach to media. Here is a brief, helpful summary.
“Postman gives some major
examples of areas in which television has denigrated our ability to communicate
effectively, including news and information, politics, religion, and education.
He characterizes television news as an assortment of attractive talking heads
that present enough information to generate an emotional response, but then
jump to a different topic before an intelligent understanding about the issues
being presented can be reached. Politics becomes nothing more than popularity
contests based on style and charisma. Religion becomes a pre-packaged
laundry list of doctrines and commandments presented against a background of
modern music and special effects all meant to confuse inspirational guidance
with spectacle and baseless assertions. And finally, learning by television
becomes learning about television. Whole generations are taught to believe
whatever the TV tells them, and what the TV most often says is that feeling
good is the most important thing in life. And, the key to feeling good is to
buy stuff.” (https://www.supersummary.com/amusing-ourselves-to-death/summary/)
My italics. And let’s put all today’s
media forms in the package, not just television.
The book is available as a PDF
here. https://www.melbhattan.com/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
It is largely because of this book that I have not watched TV news for the last
20 years. Not even Fox.
The Need for Critical Thinking
If we are to learn the truth
in our media-driven culture, we must exercise critical thinking. It is
imperative that we analyze all that we hear or read. Even an open window has a
screen to keep the bugs out.
Criticalthinking.org offers
the following descriptions. “Critical thinking can be seen as having two
components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing
skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those
skills to guide behavior.”
“A well-cultivated critical
thinker: (One who thinks skillfully)
- raises vital questions and
problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
- gathers and assesses
relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it;
- effectively comes to
well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria
and standards;
- thinks open-mindedly within
alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their
assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
- communicates effectively
with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.”
It
is never enough to merely suppose that we are reading or hearing truth.
“(Critical thinking) is contrasted
with
1) the mere acquisition and
retention of information alone, because CT involves a particular way in which
information is sought and treated;
2) the mere possession of a
set of skills because it involves the continual use of them;
3) the mere use of those
skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.”
“Critical thinking is, in
short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective
thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful
command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving
abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.”
(All quotes from https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766.
Italics mine.)
In today’s socio-centric culture,
critical thinking is withering away.
- Few raise questions or problems
about what they have heard or read;
- Few effectively come to
well-reasoned conclusions and solutions;
- Few think open-mindedly
about their own assumptions, implications, and the practical consequences of their
conclusions;
- Few communicate effectively
with others to shape solutions.
When we raise questions, come to well-reasoned conclusions, evaluate
our own assumptions regarding MSM, we find that mainstream media is a purveyor of
fake news. Facts are included but “formulation of “news,” (may be explained) in
terms of what the news organization had to do to stay in business. How
successful this approach would prove depends, of course, on the degree to which
“news” is selected and shaped by the organization.” Epstein
While I write, the previously
denied cooperation of the NIH in gain-of-function research is being exposed.
Legitimate questions about why
so many professionals, especially in the medical profession, are leaving their
jobs must be asked.
Torraine Walker, a contributor to HuffPost, offers this thoughtful
advice. “If you want to get real information about what’s going on with people
outside of the champagne and limousine loop in America, bloggers and citizen
journalists are where you have to go.”
Christians recognize that Critical
Thinking is biblical. “The one who states his case first seems right until the
other comes and examines him.” (Proverbs 18:17) It is our duty to examine the news
and discover, not what seems right, but what is right based on all the evidence.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever
is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of
praise, think -ponder, draw conclusions- about these
things.” (Philippians 4:8) That is critical for thinking
critically.
Sources:
Epstein, Edward Jay. News From Nowhere Now: Television and the News. Eje Publications, Ltd. Kindle Edition
Lichter, S. Robert, et al. Watching America. 1st ed, Prentice Hall Press, 1991.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. 20th-anniversary ed, Penguin Books, 2006.
Rindsberg, Ashley. The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions, and Fabrications Radically Alter History. 2021
On the ongoing effects of media.
Jacobsen, Eric O. Three Pieces of Glass: Why We Feel Lonely in a World Mediated by Screens. Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2020.
News Resources:
Bear in mind that every news
story is edited, and every reporter is biased. I have not listed news media that
are primarily cheerleaders for partisan politics. The following non-MSM news services seem to be the most focused on journalism, with minimal opinion.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/
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