Posted by
glen ropella on
Apr 05, 2013; 8:06pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/just-the-facts-tp7582525p7582541.html
Take your own data. Excellent suggestion! For some reason, it made me
remember this site.
The Centre for Investigative Journalism
http://www.tcij.org/I think there is a middle ground between the sensationalism of our
infotainment outlets and the often daunting task of gathering our own
data. But I have yet to find a reliable middle ground. Each source of
news I find turns out to seem biased (to me). That leads me to question
what type of person becomes a journalist. What types of journalists are
there? Etc.
I actually dated a journalism major in my last years of college and a
few years after graduation. Aside from the obvious, I was drawn to her
unbias and devotion to rationality in the face of all the prejudice
surrounding us. That unbias eventually turned into apathy and the need
for extraordinary stimulus ... like hanging out with the hippies across
the street who didn't bother to bathe, much less wash dishes or clean
house. She started listening to Blues Traveler 24/7 and finally dumped
me for an alpha hippie (a weird breed, actually).
Arlo Barnes wrote at 04/05/2013 12:32 PM:
> I don't think Democracy! Now purports to be 'just the facts' - while of
> course they wouldn't say they /distort/ the truth, mostly they are
> devoted to news and interviews about left-leaning topics, or
> civil/humanitarian rights in general. Fox News, on the other hand, is
> equally focussed on conservative viewpoints, and occasionally makes
> stuff up. CNN is going for whatever draws viewers (controversy) without
> angering them (any perception of sidedness, even where it is an
> inapplicable concept).
> Ultimately it is up to the viewer to attempt to perceive, intuit, and
> presume biases and to gestalt multiple sources to try to construct an
> accurate view of the world. So if one wants 'just the facts', they will
> have to go where facts are generated - firsthand sources and data. For
> example, in the so-called 'Climategate' issue, why not find a general
> journal you have access to, and sample papers that have been published
> about climate change - do most of them have data showing causes as being
> anthropogenic, or not? And because papers cite other papers, you can see
> what responses have been to any given study. This is a lot of work if
> done properly and does not guarantee you a fairer worldview but it
> certainly helps.
> -Arlo James Barnes
--
=><= glen e. p. ropella
Beams of darkness streak across the sky
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