Do you trust the mainstream media?

-UnderClocker- · 12 Jul 2018 at 17:10

Trust is such a strong word..

humbug · 12 Jul 2018 at 17:11

-UnderClocker- said:
Trust is such a strong word..

Yeah, but, you either do or you don't

schoopdewhoop · 13 Jul 2018 at 00:22

I think all news is bias, however I feel left-wing news is the worst culprit and far more dangerous. The way they report on the migrant crisis is a great example, they’ll focus predominately on women and children, despite the fast majority of migrants being young males of fighting age. Its playing on our heartstrings but the content does not always provide the facts.

TJM · 13 Jul 2018 at 01:26

Certain parts of the mainstream media are the only sources of factual information that are consistently reliable. If the FT or Channel 4 News report something, I'd be fairly confident that it is accurate. I used to think the same about the Telegraph until it turned into a rag.

What isn't clear to me is why people who despise the mainstream media decide to dive into online cesspools like The_Donald instead. Is Dave the racist idiot, posting from his mum's basement in Ohio, really likely to have the inside scoop on a massive conspiracy to abort more white babies?

IronWarrior · 13 Jul 2018 at 03:44

TJM said:
What isn't clear to me is why people who despise the mainstream media decide to dive into online cesspools like The_Donald instead. Is Dave the racist idiot, posting from his mum's basement in Ohio, really likely to have the inside scoop on a massive conspiracy to abort more white babies?

Well, maybe he does, BBC gets their official news about the Syrian conflict from one man reporting from his bedroom in Coventry. lol

RoboCod · 13 Jul 2018 at 05:29

TJM said:
Certain parts of the mainstream media are the only sources of factual information that are consistently reliable. If the FT or Channel 4 News report something, I'd be fairly confident that it is accurate. I used to think the same about the Telegraph until it turned into a rag.

What isn't clear to me is why people who despise the mainstream media decide to dive into online cesspools like The_Donald instead. Is Dave the racist idiot, posting from his mum's basement in Ohio, really likely to have the inside scoop on a massive conspiracy to abort more white babies?

People like to feel special, they want to be the one to find out the secret and unveil something perhaps ludicrous. I think the term is "woke".

Leave em to it and their weird doll loving ways.

vincent1989 · 13 Jul 2018 at 06:01

No I do not in the sense that it's not my only source of information, I read from a number of mainstream sources but because the mainstream is now fairly homogenous and is by and large an echo chamber which appears to have forgone any vestige of actual journalistic enquiry in favour of simple repetition I now also use other outlets. Especially if I want a non-left/far left point of view.

Zethor · 13 Jul 2018 at 07:11

vincent1989 said:
No I do not in the sense that it's not my only source of information, I read from a number of mainstream sources but because the mainstream is now fairly homogenous and is by and large an echo chamber which appears to have forgone any vestige of actual journalistic enquiry in favour of simple repetition I now also use other outlets. Especially if I want a non-left/far left point of view.

Out of curiosity, what other outlets do you use?

VincentHanna · 13 Jul 2018 at 07:12

I bet I can guess....

RoboCod · 13 Jul 2018 at 07:52

AAV.... Haha

ubersonic · 13 Jul 2018 at 08:19

TJM said:
What isn't clear to me is why people who despise the mainstream media decide to dive into online cesspools like The_Donald instead. Is Dave the racist idiot, posting from his mum's basement in Ohio, really likely to have the inside scoop on a massive conspiracy to abort more white babies?

The thing I find funny is when they said the BBC is super biased and a puppet of the government, then go on about how everyone should watch Russia Today

IronWarrior · 13 Jul 2018 at 08:22

ubersonic said:
The thing I find funny is when they said the BBC is super biased and a puppet of the government, then go on about how everyone should watch Russia Today

Now I trust the BBC over RT, but lets not pretend, they not both government run or sponsored. BBC on Youtube just like RT even has warnings that it is outside the UK.

ianh · 13 Jul 2018 at 08:57

Most televised/print news doesn't seem to be purely factual any more, it seems to be more about loudly giving their own opinions on a weakly researched story. However I like to make my own opinions and I can't do if I don't have all the facts first.

As a well as what is reported I now find that also have to trawl the web for stories that aren't reported by "mainstream" places. I found it understandable in the past as a TV broadcast was only so long or a paper only had so many pages but now with the web those reasons not to cover stories (even in short form) aren't reasonable any more.

ahar · 13 Jul 2018 at 10:23

Even revolutionary Marxists read the FT. They say that because it affects whether they make profits or not, that's one of the few places capitalists won't lie to themselves.

Nasher · 13 Jul 2018 at 11:31

IronWarrior said:
Now I trust the BBC over RT, but lets not pretend, they not both government run or sponsored. BBC on Youtube just like RT even has warnings that it is outside the UK.

RT is a lot more bias though. They won't say a single bad thing about Russia or Putin, they wouldn't dare

humbug · 13 Jul 2018 at 11:40

Well, ITV did a piece on Trump at 7pm last night that was not too bad, one of the people they had commenting was classic feminist Geneen Grea (That is not how you speed her name, i don't know how to spell it) her take on the Trump hysteria: Get a ####'ing grip **********, i'm paraphrasing of course.

CH4's news comrades started their Trump coverage with a bunch of swivel eye lunatics pushing their kids in-front of the cameras wailing "we don't want a misogynist racist world for our children" which is when i switched to ITV.

Randomface74 · 13 Jul 2018 at 11:48

I found this diagram really weird. Do people actually think it's accurate? I've marked where I think the BBC is:

humbug · 13 Jul 2018 at 11:55

billysielu said:
I found this diagram really weird. Do people actually think it's accurate? I've marked where I think the BBC is:

No, the BBC are among the worst offenders.

VincentHanna · 13 Jul 2018 at 12:30

If only there was some sort of FAQ you could read that explains the chart...

http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/faq/

humbug · 13 Jul 2018 at 12:35

VincentHanna said:
If only there was some sort of FAQ you could read that explains the chart...

http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/faq/

Can you sum it up for those of us who aren't inclined to read all that?