Who Do You Trust?
How much of what you think you know is the truth?
Who do you trust?
I have seen reference to an older MIT study concerning social media. Apparently, these experts were able to determine that much of what is on social media is BS. I guess that’s why they make the big bucks!
They seem concerned with what to do about social media inaccuracies. Why do anything about it? People have the right to shoot off their mouths. It would be nice if they would acquaint themselves with facts and logic beforehand, but that is by no means required.
But, if we are really concerned with falsehoods in reporting, then why do we tolerate it from our major media? Let me remove you, for a moment, from the fog of political war, and take you back to the early 1990s. The internet was little more than a fantasy, and Donald Trump was twenty-five years from running for office. Was there fake news then? HELL YES! I had for quite some time watched the first fifteen minutes of the Today show ech morning before I went off to work. I got the basic headlines in those first fifteen minutes. But I noticed something. I started actually assessing what they were reporting, and continually found that the reporting ranged between sloppy, and downright lies. So, from then on, I watched local news in the morning. At approximately that time, but a little later, the same happened for 60 Minutes. I had watched 60 Minutes every Sunday, since it began. But same thing; innuendos, half-truths, and sometimes outright lies.
Perhaps the news media had really deteriorated, or maybe I had become more discerning as I grew older. But certainly, I am not the only one who has noticed how partisan the media have become. I don’t want to write a book here, so let me just highlight some of the glaring propagandizing that has gone on in the media. Some of this is pretty old, and the whippersnappers might have to look things up.
Alexander Haig was Sec of State when Reagan was shot. There was a quick news conference that Haig gave from the White House, and which I happened to see live. The short version of this story is that Haig was incessantly badgered about who was in charge at the White House. He continually answered by stating that VP George Bush was in Airforce One and in full communication, and the WH staff did not need immediate supervision. But the press would not relent, insisting that somebody needing to be in charge at the WH, so in frustration, Haig said “OK, I’M in control at the WH”. The next day and for weeks following, the press only played “I’m in control at the WH”, as if Haig was making some sort of power grab. As I googled this, I was appalled at the number of posts TO THIS DAY that claim that Haig was in the midst of a power grab. But here is a 47 second video that shows Haig explaining the constitutional chain of succession. These days, a whole 47 seconds of video seems like a full-length movie. But I remember that the press conference went on for quite some time prior to these 47 seconds, and that Haig REPEATEDLY pointed out that the government could function temporarily without Reagan, and that George Buch was ready to take over, should it become necessary. All that Haig was saying, in a direct response to the question, “But who is in charge at the White House”, was that he was handling immediate issues at the White House. He never even implied that he was in control of the government.
Richard Jewell saved many lives, when he discovered a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics. Over time, the media decided that he had in fact planted the bomb so that he could “find” it and be a hero. I saw the entire fiasco unfold over the weeks and easily recognized the feeding frenzy of the press as they enhanced each other’s stories. In the end, the real bomber was found, and the media blamed the FBI for misleading them. Except that the FBI didn’t mislead them. They misled each other, and I watched them do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell
Michael Brown was shot by officer Wilson in Ferguson. TWENTY black witnesses said it was self-defense. The media wanted it to be cop racism, so they manufactured their own story, including “Hands up, don’t shoot”, which NEVER HAPPENED. To this day, idiots are going around saying “Hands up, don’t shoot”, blissfully unaware that it is a lie told by the media. That lie is still told today. The link here is frankly a bit one sided. But it’s the side that NEVER gets covered by the media, or in schools, so perhaps you would do well to read this account for balance. https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/11/06/michael-brown-the-founding-myth-of-black-lives-matter/
Donald Trump and John McCain certainly did not like each other. But I wondered what specifically made Donald Trump say of John McCain, “I like people who weren’t captured”. As the media went off on that one like the jackals they are, I bothered to wonder what caused Trump to even mention McCain in the first place. Turns out that that statement came as part of a very rational interview, in which Trump was asked about the hate speech against him by McCain. McCain even subsequently acknowledged that he had “drawn first blood”, and that Trump was within his rights to make his statement. Of course, you did NOT hear that from the media. There was plenty of bad blood and inappropriate statements from both men, but the point here is that the media reported on NOTHING but Trump’s one statement. Right? If you remember any of this, chances are you only remember Trump saying he didn’t admire people who got captured. Very likely, that’s all you were ever TOLD.
Does the name Tawana Brawley ring a bell? The young woman claimed to have been raped by four white men. Violent crimes happen every day, unfortunately, but this case was just what the media was looking for; the chance to promote the myth that white men are especially violent and racist. And this was about white fraternity brothers; even better! The media played it for everything they could get. Except that Tawana made up the story. It never happened. Initial reporting of the story was called for, certainly, but the media feeding frenzy was not. And as it became very apparent that Tawana was lying, many in the media continued to play the story for everything they could get. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-media-controversy-ignites-over-the-case-of-tawana-brawley
And how about Rolling Stone? If you are old enough, you already know what comes next. Rolling Stone ran a story about the gang rape of a black woman by white University of Virginia students. This story was entirely fabricated by the writer for Rolling Stone. Yet, the media ate it up. It was weeks before the truth came out. https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/frat-sues-rolling-stone-25-million-over-discredited-story-msna720601
As I’ve said, I’m trying to not write a book, here, but there is so much to say. To sum up; people shooting off their mouths on social media is a first amendment right, and should be liberally tolerated as a right, even if it is not respected. On the other hand, professional “journalists” lying and massaging information and calling it “news”, is disgraceful. I have a basic question for you: You probably have opinions about racism, social justice, and political parties. My question is, how did you come up with your opinions? Think, now. I’m not so concerned with what your opinions actually are, but are they YOUR opinions? Or are they “opinions” that have been manipulated into your mind?
There is a book by Sharyl Attkisson that addresses more recent iterations of intentional manipulation of “news”. It’s called The Smear, and if you have any concern at all with being lied to and manipulated, you MUST read this book. (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-smear-sharyl-attkisson/1125687320) And, if you aren’t concerned with being lied to and manipulated, WHY NOT?! (More recently, Sharyl has released “Slanted”, which further points out “journalism’s” descent into promoting The Narrative, as opposed to reporting news. (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/slanted-sharyl-attkisson/1136705504 This problem goes back decades. I lost any semblance of respect for the news media way back in the early 1990s. To blame Trump for ANY of this, or to make it about social media, is to ignore the biggest problem we have in media today; FAKE NEWS.