I watch the news. That is no a great exclamation of my superior intelligence. I do it because I like to know what is going on in the world, love politics and think that news today will make for great stories in the future (you already know that I think real life is more unbelievable than fiction). I also love to debate. I love talking politics; especially with those who do not agree with me. I do not care about political correctness or social justice. I only care about the truth and what is right. And I am open. If one makes a good argument, I will listen and even agree.
But I have found, in the recent past, that most of the news sources that people get their information are really rather sketchy. When someone counters an argument with a fact, I find the first thing I do is ask where he got that fact. What source? When I find out, I actually weigh the validity of the source. I have been shocked at some of the places people get their news. What is worse: people form their beliefs around the garbage (half is meant for entertainment purposes only).
Today, I decided to go through some of the bazaar places people get their news.
Pop Culture
We live in a time where Pop Culture. Movies, music, television and sports are constantly bombarding us with political information. I remember watching the movie JFK by the Marxist director Oliver Stone (and he is a Marxist, for those who question me). I thought it was an awesome movie and I questioned if Lee Harvey Oswald actually could have killed Kennedy and thought it was probably the U.S. government. Thank God I did a little research (based off the same resources Stone used) and came to the conclusion that the government probably had nothing to do with it.
I may be way off, but news and political commentary may not be best received from LeBron James, who boasts a high school education. Or Chelsea Handler whose claim to fame was the literature classic My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands. Or Rosie O’Donnell who is just bat-crap crazy.
Late Night Shows
I remember watching The Late Show with Johnny Carson. A great show, very funny. A lot of Carson’s monologue made fun of politicians and their missteps. Though it did not put the politician in a positive light, his jokes were far from angry or vicious. But, today, late show hosts sound like political orators. Their opening monologues, usually meant to be funny and set the tone for the show, end up being diatribes about the political story-de-jour. And they all lean one way and there is no one to debate them. They are reverends standing on their pulpits, lecturing us little people about the evils of our system because they had some moral authority bestowed to them by a television network executive. So they must be right.
And we should listen. After all, how can we question the virtues of Jimmie Kimmel with The Man Show on his resume?
Social Media
My buddy, an avid political animal, always sends me little factoids about the current political climate. I would read these, incredulous, and look to news sites to get the whole story. To my disappointment, I would find no reference to the alleged story. I would later find out my buddy got the story from one of his Facebook friends. Ugh!
According to Pew Research, 67% of Americans receive some of their news from social media including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Now I know one should never doubt news that comes from sources that has so many smiling families and cute puppy pics and I am sure that Tony is actually drinking a beer at Spagos but that does not mean everything else from those sites is accurate (I know Brad Pitt isn’t dead yet, unfortunately). I hardly believe what I hear on legitimate news outlets (or at least am suspicious of it) so why would I believe what Uncle Bryan said he saw from another post?
In Conclusion
We live in a very deceptive times. We are pummeled with information from various sources. Most of that information is slanted one way or another. More than ever before, it is important to absorb information with doubt and always look at the source of that information. Sir Francis Bacon once said (or at least quoted an unknown source) that, “Knowledge is power”. And he is right. But it is more important now than ever to make sure the knowledge gained is actually factual.
Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl
Resources:
http://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/
Photos courtesy of:
wtpotus.wordpress.com
amazon.com
PBS
complex.com
dailyheadlines.com
socialmediaweek.org
Infowars.com
