Lies, Lies, and Patron Saints

Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.~Walter Cronkite

Over the course of human history, the latest news has been reason for kingdoms to either fall or stand through centuries on end. Whether it be about the results of battles or kings and queens falling, the news is a vital part of humanity. With new technology and better roads, news is swifter than ever. However, while it may be swift, the truth is inaccurate, if not worse still.

The startlingly thing about the news is, most of the time, it is false. It's not a lie, there is no nice way to say it. The news is knowingly and unknowingly spreading untruths about events in our world. This is sometimes making a small mistake as the age of someone, to completely reshaping the truth. What's even more shocking still, is that it is well known documented fact. However, we still trust it. It's not like some crazy conspiracy theorist, smelling faintly like cabbage telling you this. Universities, any university worth it's salt will tell you that when looking for information, not to trust the news.

With the news, most news reports are bias. They pick a side, and demonize the other. Sometimes, at the cost of innocents being wrongly picked on, and horrible people being glorified. This is morally wrong, and a crime against humanity, but it happens. Furthermore, the news will sometimes swap things around when they realize they are on the losing side. Other times, they will report things incorrectly to get more views, even to the point where they are almost blatantly lying.

The way the news can do these unethical practices is that they are just reporting things; What they are really reporting is questionable. They do this sometimes by omitting things, and showing a one sided story. This is seen by showing certain images and cut-scenes to support their argument. The problem with this is, we cannot argue against them, because we are not there. 

The news could show someone being mugged and show the robber in a good light, just by cutting and editing. It wouldn't be a lie what they are showing, it is exactly what happened. But it is heavily edited. Or another example would be, when they say researchers, they could put a sign on someone who isn't a researcher and say he/she is a researcher. Or the news could ask that person to say they are a researcher and thus provide “facts” for the public from a researcher. When in reality, these researchers are just German aunties and mothers. 

To further delve into this matter, when the news say research, this could be from a trustworthy source or an untrustworthy source. The problem with this is, it is only one source. It would be like visiting one health site and treating it like gospel truth. People make mistakes, that is why it is so important that one have many sources. All it takes, is for the news to find some obscure journal article and say something is truth. It wouldn't be a lie, they got it from a journal article, right?

However, even journal articles can't be trusted. There was one journal article that was titled, Where Is My CENSORED Mail. It had grafts, charts, and all the bells and whistles saying, Where Is My CENSORED Mail. The point is, even if they pick a journal article and call it research, it can mean anything, from truth to false.

The news is not full of lies, rather what they are doing is skirting around an out right lie. However, if it waddles like a duck, sounds like a duck, it's a duck. When you play around with the truth and change it so much, it might as well be a lie. The problem with this is, they distort the truth, and no one really has the time to search for the truth. It seems disappointing that something so big would be so wrong.The fact is, we cannot trust the news, except about major events to be true, and even then, they will be bias.