It seems to me, that one of the things we're missing in the news today is investigative reporting. Whether we're talking about print or radio and television journalism, the news media tends to simply pass on what they are told. If the media outlet is liberal in its bent, it will give greater credence to what it is told by liberal politicians and organizations, seeking the least credible neoconservatives to quote in order to lend an air of balance to their story, and if the media outlet is neoconservative, such as Fox News, they will focus their reports according to what they are told by neoconservative sources, and I can't think of any true conservative media operating on the national stage. When a media outlet wants to appear to be neutral, they will put someone on from the liberal side of the issue, and someone on from the neoconservative side of an issue, and occasionally even a conservative, but the closest they ever come to investigative journalism is a gotcha question leveled at whichever side of the issue the media outlet is most opposed to. I don't see anything other than what amounts to dissemination of press releases passing for the news today. Fact checking rarely goes beyond asking someone who they can present as an expert whether they agree or disagree with whatever it is that they are supposedly fact checking. I am tempted to consider that we haven't had much in the way of actual investigative journalism since Woodward and Bernstein in the 1970s, yet I can't help but wonder if they would have bothered had Nixon been a Democrat. One possible source of the problem may well be a lack of funds on the part of the print media, since newspapers have certainly seen better days, and traditionally the print media has been responsible for most investigative pieces, while the broadcast media has rarely done much more than repeat things that have already been reported elsewhere. Today, the broadcast media consists almost entirely of partisan pundits giving opinions that are sold to us as news, which is why people have a hard time telling the difference between people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Paul Krugman and the news media, as television news broadcasts spend a great deal of their air time interviewing pundits, and even quoting comedians.
So far, I've seen Fox News doing a great job with investigative reporting truth and let people investigate facts and decide. For opinion reporting, I have appreciation for such as Bill O'Riley and Sean Hannity, Gretchen, Chris Wallace, and the Fox Five, Bret Beier, and the lady-commentors with a guest speaker on the couch ( I forgot their group's name :-/). They are the ones I think that benefit people's respect and whom I watch throughout and respond to with thoughts of my own.
Fox News always show and feature former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Dr. Ben Carson for opinions I share a lot with. Katrina Pearson, Jeffress, Jeff Sessions, former Governor Scott Brown add to my wanto-watch-list.
There is to much bias. Even if there is some investigative reporting going on it seems to always be one sided. Even though PBS News is limited, I find when they discuss the news in Politics, etc. they will have two people who are are definitely biased...but one person will be biased for one side...and the other person for the other side. And I do find that PBS will do some investigative reporting which they will use have a special presentation on. Most of the News stations are told what to say and when to say it, even how to say it...and I think it's more to stir controversy than tell the truth, etc. It's not like it used to be for sure and I bet even some of the News Reporters wish things were different too.
I agree, there's little actual investigative reporting that goes on, on the national level. We do have some good local investigative reporters who delve into community and sometimes state matters, but they tend to stick to those realms. That's much needed, since there are a lot of questionable 'good old boy' type of tactics going on behind the scene, with others in the forefront push their own agendas openly, but since those agendas match with the current PC climate, no one questions it. It seems there are few who are in it for anyone but themselves these days, no true statesmen who care enough about the country to put it ahead of their own interests. That's why I rarely bother watching the news these days. I get most of my information on social media, or through various news apps.
Investigative reporting is bad for your health. If you go into another country to get the real story you get shot kidnapped or just thrown in jail check out Turkey. Even in the US if you want to get the real story and it is opposed to the government’s side you can be thrown in jail with trump up charges for example Peter Santilli who went to the Bundy stand off to get the truth and later was thrown in jail because they claimed he was a leader and he had a weapon the only weapon he ever carried was a camera and note pad. He now is still in jail with ridicules charges. We take too much creditability in what is in the main press especial when it is owned by six different groups and will not let you hear of anything that has not been approved by the elite. I have posted many things on health and no one would believe me unless it was in a main media press. The only real news now is coming from the alternative media. Fukushima is killing the Pacific Ocean and should be in the headlines ever other day. Every other day you hear about large amounts of animal life die along the west coast but they cannot say Fukushima trying to blame everything else. The people who are speaking out have been dragged through the courts and been proven innocent and then they go back to court on another charge proven innocent and they keep this up until they quit. Thank goodness for forums, alternative media, and the internet if you use it correctly.
The news is very bias for example when Syria supposedly gassed their own people which were proven later even by the UN to be done by the opposition. Still US elite keep saying it and not being corrected only accepted as true. The US /UN wants to change the government in Syria even though it was legally elected. The opposite happens with Turkey which has been killing their own population for many years and it goes unreported; it goes back to 1984 when they killed 30,000 of their own people. Now they are destroying cities and killing thousands of their own people and not even a word said because they are a US /UN part of the group of protected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_villages_depopulated_by_Turkey http://www.dw.com/en/unprecedented-destruction-of-kurdish-city-of-cizre/a-19265927 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/magazine/behind-the-barricades-of-turkeys-hidden-war.html?_r=0
I watched a Frontline episode about Syria, and it seemed much more well-balanced than anything I'd seen in the news here. I've always watched Frontline, and they're a lot less biased than one would expect, especially when you listen to the lead-in, about where their support comes from, and what the goals of those people/groups are. They sound really left-wing, but I appreciate that the coverage appears to be well-balanced.
I'm not well versed on how networks get their news. I do know that if you watch the three network news channels here, they all have the same stories at about the same times, with almost the same wording. If they didn't have different reporters you would almost swear it was the same program.
I whole completely agree. I long for the time when no personal opinions were offered and the goal was to state the facts and let the reader or audience come to their own conclusion. I would also appreciate it if celebrity news was kept out of the evening news.
Mainstream media, for decades, has assumed bloodthirsty, sadistic control in their liberal leftist regressive ideology. Since the Trump-Make-America-Great-Again movement, it's the turning point of the world upside down-- wherever standpoint we look at it. Exciting!
I agree with you on FOX news. They have their faults, but FOX is still way better than the alternatives.
I think this might be a sign of an awakening of the people. They no longer trust the main street media.
They're both just as biased, the difference being the Fox is neoconservative while the others are liberal. Both will lead us to the same place but the neoconservatives will try to make us believe we're on the right path until it's too late to turn back.