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frank mcneil

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How do we stop the obvious media bias that is infiltrating news reporting from changing our true reality and influencing future events.

I'm concerned about the media's influence on those people not invested enough in current events to self fact check our politicians, therefore creating a new and false reality. We so often hear posturing elected officials uttering completely untrue statements that go unchallenged by the media if they support that official. We see political talk shows stocked with analyst that support the hosts views, we see newspapers with political agendas of their own. I'd love to hear suggestions on how "we the people" can reverse this tend and force news outlets to just report facts and trust the viewer or reader to form opinions. Newspapers and the network news outlets are dying because when they are compared to other options they are the least desirable choices. However the web and cable outlets are all too biased to be accepted as a true source of news. With our education process often times liberal leaning how do our kids form opinions free of bias? What outlets can be formed to fact check and fight against slanted news agencies? Our world is so small now because of our abilities to spread small news stories worldwide with minutes,(FLA pastor burns Koran) and affect actions across the globe. We need honesty and truth in our news reporting. How do we make this happen? How do we force accountability on those misinforming the public?

Topics: mass media
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    Scott Armstrong 50+

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    Jun 5 2011: Treat the news programmes as they are - entertainment.
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    Ken brown 30+

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    Jun 4 2011: Yeah i like jim lehrer too similar to our own in nz

  • Ron Alvarez

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    May 25 2011: This problem started in the seventies when corporations started buying up TV radio and newspapers from the private sector to control the media and control what the masses can and cannot know, They know if you can control public opinion you control the country, If you want to change the status quo go after the offenders and insist on balanced news.
    Where ever you see propaganda put them in check.
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    Dayne Keefe

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    May 24 2011: Education and awareness.

    Read/watch news online.
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    Scott Armstrong 50+

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    May 23 2011: It's all gossip.

    The great lie about the 21st century is that we're more disconnected than ever before.

    If you need to know something, because you feel desperate or passionate about it, then you have to be there. Get in the way.

    Everything else is just hearsay.
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    Tim blackburn 30+

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    May 23 2011: just turn off the damn t.v!
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    Helen Hupe 30+

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    May 23 2011: Jim Lehrer on PBS is a good news source. There is no "spin" only facts. However this does not address all the lying that goes on. I think Lynn has a good idea.
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    lynn eschbach 30+

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    May 23 2011: Brainstorming here . . . .how about a 'fact box' popup that, whenever a person in or seeking power is being interviewed, says whether or not a particular promise was kept, or a prediction came through, or a fact is false. Be it a nongovernmental body such as a conglomerate of small business people, or a non-profit organization, this entity would contract with different media outlets as their ''fact box' managers.

    The media outlet that contracts for this business would get a larger share of the curious, critically minded, listeners. Thus their advertising revenue would go up to support them. Is there a computer smart enough to quickly spit out such things?

    Or, have the 'fact box' published on the media outlet's website every night of all of its guests that day.

    I think the media outlets need to start showing us factually because those that don't, in the end, won't get the viewership if the next channel on the dial is doing a great job of gaining back our trust.
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      Andrew Buchmann

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      May 26 2011: Well because far too often facts contradict our beliefs. People don't like to be told they have false beliefs. In fact, Fox News is notorious for dismissing facts for this very reason. When your number one viewer is a white,adult christian conservative, the last thing you want to be doing is reporting the facts............................

      • frank mcneil

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        May 27 2011: Andrew I agree with you about FOX but then we have to be fair and note call out the Times with their multpie occurances of false stories, CBS news completely making up a story regarding Bush's military career and MSNBC is so wildly left their news and discussion programs are a joke.....the problem is the examples are almost endless and include almost every outlet you can think of. Where can we go for credible news? Its a huge problem because we have NO ONE we can trust to tell us the truth and allow us to form our own opinions. Eveyone is trying to shape the news vs report it.
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          Andrew Buchmann

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          May 27 2011: But it is so much more fun to poke at FOX than any of the others. Doesn't Anne Coulter just make you feel all cold/dead/tingly on the inside?!

    • frank mcneil

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      May 27 2011: Lynn, I like the idea of a fact box or some sort of way that can identify when an individual was being misleading. But beyond the tv news we must consider the left/right leanings of blogs and websites that are content to simply throw anything out as fact to back a particular agenda. Aproblem thaqt seems to compound itself when the mainstreem media picks upa nd runs with a story not because its true but just because it had been reported.
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    xu luting

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    May 23 2011: 恩...感受到媒体对我们的影响了，不管是负面的还是积极的，似乎都被萧条了，有时候人们即使相信也无动于衷，只让人与人之间变得冷漠，这的确要正面的解决一系列的问题，很抱歉，不能给你出很好的主意，不过我很支持你的。加油~
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      Laura Bickle

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      May 23 2011: Is there a translation?
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        Tim blackburn 30+

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        May 23 2011: Well ... feel the impact of our media, whether negative or positive, seems to have been depressed, and sometimes people even believe that is also indifferent to, only to become indifferent between people, it is indeed to be a positive A series of problems to solve, I am sorry, can not give you a good idea, but I support you. Come on ~

        google translate
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          Laura Bickle

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          May 23 2011: Hmmm... not quite as satisfying as it would be if I just learned some Chinese... but I'm probably not going to do that :(
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