Name your source?

Legal & Second Amendment
#1

This isn’t a completely new topic for the Community - we’ve repeatedly talked about the media bias. Here’s Beth Alcazar’s take on it:


From the article:

I don’t know about you, but if I want to find out about something nowadays, I do research. I avoid the mainstream. I try to seek out factual, reputable sources, and I look at a variety of different sides and options. And, honestly, I would suggest that you do the same.

That’s why I like having reference links in the Community as much as possible. I want people to be able to back-track and find the research that we’re discussing.

How often do you watch the news or read a newspaper?

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#2

Very close to never. Probably 7 or 8 years since I listened to the news on the radio and probably a dozen since I read a newspaper for ALL the reasons Beth listed. It’s been maybe 20 for news on TV. Its easier because we haven’t had TV for almost 10 years.
I used to listen to radio for the 5 minutes of news just to know about things like earthquakes and major events but even that I stopped a long while back. If a thing is really important. people in my environment will be talking about it and I can go find out what I need.
I stopped trusting pretty much anything the media does after participating in two interviews where I was selectively quoted to make my opinion sound exactly the opposite of what it was, and after a friend was the topic of a news story where they presented so much more spin and hype than fact that it was barely recognizable.
I got it that it wasn’t even sensationalism and hyperbole but outright lies… that’s when I was done.
If you want to know just how bad it is, read this:
The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

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#3

And then there’s my blood pressure… I discovered in college that watching the news made my blood pressure go up, made me anxious and unhappy. There are enough real things to worry about without the news giving you not just hyped up things to fear, but adding constant reinforcement to how bad things are and how dangerous the world is. The fact that they include just ONE positive story in a half hour of news certainly points out their point of view. And they call it “balance”. Orwellian indeed.

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#4

No media outlet is perfect. They all put their own spin on the news.

That being said I normally get most of my news from MPR the local affiliate of NPR.

And I really like to listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me to quiz myself if I know enough of what is happening.

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#5

NPR when in the car. Filtered news via Google when online. It is all pretty skewed and I’m not sure we can get facts anymore. Even NPR, the last bastion of our English, is like listening to 12 year old valley girls. I enjoy reading Ammoland every day, but I’m not sure I’d call that factual either.

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#6

The following is MY opinion formed from my personal experiences.

My distrust of news agencies/reporters started in the 1970s (this is when I started to notice the lies).

Of these three statements, all liberals hate guns, all conservatives hate abortion, all reporters are liars, the last one is the closest to being true (in my opinion).
.
I am sure reporters dont start out that way but I find more and more misguided, misleading and out right lies coming from reporters no matter what the media type they work for. Way to often people are misquoted or an interview edited in a way that changes the interviewees message.

I am sure this is not always done on purpose, but it is done way to often, if not by the reporter themselves then by their editors or the people in the cut room. Tell me this; How can a 30 minute interview with video footage be cut down to a 30 second news clip and NOT change the original message?

In high school I took a journalism class and wrote for the school newspaper. There were a number of times I was told to cut a story down because it was too long. Not just to many unnecessary words.
More then once I had to go back and say either print it as written or dont print it at all. I cant change the article length because it will change the message.

I lost most of those battles and stopped taking “Journalism” as a class after than. I didn’t care about my grade as much as I cared about my honesty and integrity.
If I could go back and do it again I would have continued to take that class in an attempt to fight from the inside (lets face it I was a teen and didn’t have the knowledge and tools then that I do now).

Now, unless I can verify the message on my own, I assume it is a half truth or an out and out lie. Far to often there are articles on the first 3 pages of a newspaper in large font with outrageous content, then a retraction or apology a few days later in small print found buried (if you can find it) on one of the back pages. The damage is done, just as intended.

(Stepping off my soap box)
Don

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#7

I watch the news and or read the paper for local news only. I do read a ton of stuff from various sources online. Even the “fake news.” Know thine enemy and all that. I keep up in a variety of “hot topics”. I’m similar to the Diamond Rio song It’s all in Your Head. “Every Friday night, he’d pick Jesus a fight down at the local pool hall. Racking up balls, condemnin all those, caught behind the 8ball.” Instead of the pool hall, it’s Facebook.

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#8

I used to only watch the news for the weather, now I check my phone for that. There’s always a bias angle in any news source. Everyone has an agenda. And I’m afraid these days most people only read or watch what they already agree with. Few people are actually going to take the time to research what they’re being told. We’re either too busy or to lazy, and that’s what the media is counting on. In my humble opinion.

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#9

I watch the Local news at the 5PM Hour which is Chicago CBS2, NBC5, & ABC7, during the day CNN, yeah for over 40 years they’re #1 until Pres. Trump says they lie. But they’re all lying their Sitters off. My take is you have to Filter what’s True and what runs the spectrum from False to partially acceptable. If a person is a functioning person they can figure it out. Every media outlet is in someone’s pocket somewhere in my view. Everyone have a wonderful day stay safe.

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#10

I don’t watch any of the MSM, CNN, or MSNBC at all. because I’ve found that they have in most cases they don’t report the TRUE FACTS on stories if they go AGAINST their agenda. But I’ve found that Fox News Channel does a good job of reporting a good unbiased news. And I watch mostly “THE FIVE”, “SEAN HANNITY”, LARA INGRAM", AND JUSTICE WITH JUDE JEANNIE". And for the last 2 years SEAN HANNITY has been right with his reporting of the RUSSIA COLLUSION and it being fake.

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#11

Perhaps I’m just a bit cynical. :wink:

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#12

We no longer take the local paper because they have a clear bias. We also only watch local news to catch the weather report (though we can get that on our phones now), especially during serious conditions. Otherwise, I look to various sources to round out the information I am taking in. NPR is relatively unbiased in general, though they do hew left when it is a political or policy story. BBC is pretty reliable. It comes down to the tried and true…verify with multiple sources.

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#13

I’m prejudiced since @Beth and Shawn are my favorite Instructor/TC team.

With that I’ll say I enjoy both her writing and acting more and more as she steps deeper into those fields.

She’s dead on as usual with this article, always look for sources, and challenge “data” whenever it seems to be tilted or has a specific ideological bent.

You don’t have to be rude about it, just rigorous from an academic perspective.

In all honestly most of the Anti Gun Left just pukes up stat’s and claims that are either completely fabricated and they are unaware of it, or they are doing the fabricating themselves.

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#14

I go to Dr. Lott and https://crimeresearch.org/ for a lot of my research!

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#15

@Beth Alcazar Great work, pass along my best to the old man. Hopefully we’ll see you in the fall in WI.

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#16

Lott and Kleck are two outstanding researchers who came to almost identical findings while using totally different methods and from opposite approaches. Kleck was actually trying to prove that “More Guns = More Crime” but was honest enough (rare) to publish his findings anyhow.

Both are cited frequently here.

https://guncite.com/

Another great resource.

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#17

@Beth @WildRose those are both sites I use :smiley:

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#18
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#19

I get most national news from yahoo.com. they are very biased. I go straight to the comments. Commenters usually post a link to a better article. If I have more questions or otherwise invested in a story, I’ll research from there.

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#20

Not a bad plan. The biased articles are usually very easy to refute with fact with just minimal effort using the sources we linked above. Some occasionally require a few more seconds. :grinning:

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