Soap Box Day Today

[Judy Harder]

Tobina,

Every time they find an (almost) honest politiician.....they find a way to smear him and boot him out.

I know we don't have a better choice, but we can clean house............I mean the ins may not be in when the election
is over and if we clean up the Senate and all those people, maybe we can find some satisfaction.;


I am on the counting board here in Longton, and many times we have people write in Mickey Mouse or the like and Do you 
know I would almost........LOL.......enjoy reading his name out to be counted........LOL.

But, we must take what is put to us and in the end, just maybe we will get it right.

I know that people are talking about the anti-christ......but, altho we are coming to an uprising, I for one am trusting
God to help us get it right.

Jesus will come when Jesus will come!........In the meantime we live with our eyes on the Lord, and trust...........and Trust
some more.........We are UNITED in this, This year.......who knows what will happen .........Only God knows.

Hang in there and we will make a change. God bless

Judy

[dnalexander]

Today's subject:

          IS THE PRESS AND MEDIA OBLIGATED TO BE AS TRUTHFUL AS POSSIBLE?

I don't have the time right now to get into this as fully as I would like, but I wanted to get it started.  My simple answer is yes.  The press and media news are obligated to be as truthful as possible, but some of them are not doing that and are in fact doing just the opposite.

Absolutely the press and media are obligated to be truthful, objective, and unbiased. they are not. I took a journalism class in school and that concept was drummed into us while we wrote the school newspaper and studied the history of journalism. Definitely gone today or very hard to find. This is a great question and I have been cussing at the tv and the newspaper each time I see stories that blatantly violate these policies.

David

[Tobina+1]

Well, it is called Freedom of Speech, so I guess they really can say what they want to.  What really needs to happen is that people need to start thinking for themselves and find out information on their own... not just believe what the media or any "unbiased" group tells you.
I do have to say that the morning I watched CNN, it did seem very neutral... they were doing "fact vs. fiction" on the campaign ad claims.  They didn't seem to come across for or against either candidate.  I just wished they wouldn't have talked for 3 hours STRAIGHT on only campain issues... when there was other breaking news scrolling across the bottom of the screen that you could barely read (and I read fast).

[sixdogsmom]

Bias has always been evident in the media; however sensationalism has become popular and successful in recent years only because of readership. Somewhat like the oldest profession, if there were no customers there would be no product offered. The human race is pretty seedy as far as showing publicly what we really are all about and what we are really about in private. Why do they have those trash papers at the grocery checkout? Because they sell!! Only the garbage collector knows after all!  

Tobina, you may want to sample CNN Headline News; they pretty much keep up with all the news, while CNN does indepth stuff.

[dnalexander]

The objective unbiased facts are the news. Their opinion should be kept in Op|ed or clearly delineated as opinion. Has nothing to do with free speech or not. No one is quashing their right to free speech. Just a matter of being honest, objective, and unbiased that is what Journalism should be.

David

[sixdogsmom]

Once when I worked for ATT&T, they sponsered a seminar on grief management. Part of that was a short lecture on shoulda, coulda, woulda. The point of that lecture is that we bring on a lot of our own problems with expectations that are not legitimate. That if we leave Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda at home, it is much easier to cope with the world.

I do not think there is such a thing as objective unbiased facts; we are all victims of our own experiences, and that in turn tints the view we have of any one thing. You may observe a vehicle accident differently than myself for instance. Doesn't mean that either is correct or incorrect, but 'see' things from a different perspective. History books are a terrific example of this. You can read a history of something that is written in present time, and read about it written in a time from long ago. Often, they are unrecognizable as being the same incident.

So all papers would be the same if they coulda, shoulda, woulda seen the same way. 

P.S. (Did you notice that I am beginning to sound like Pam? Must be all those enlightenment postings!) 

[Tobina+1]

Good points, SDM.  To add to that, we all may perceive "bias" differently, too.  Depending on how ferverent we are in our own beliefs, or our own experiences with the subject.  So it's not just the reporters' bias, but the listeners/audiences bias, too.

[Catwoman]

That's why, when social researchers do "scientific" polling, they have a margin of error of +/- 4%, or whatever measure they're using at the time...bias plays a huge part in those discussions...it's hard to get an accurate picture when you're dealing with innate prejudices and generationally intrenched views.

[pam]

P.S. (Did you notice that I am beginning to sound like Pam? Must be all those enlightenment postings!)

Oh no.....LOL
1

[dnalexander]

That's why, when social researchers do "scientific" polling, they have a margin of error of +/- 4%, or whatever measure they're using at the time...bias plays a huge part in those discussions...it's hard to get an accurate picture when you're dealing with innate prejudices and generationally intrenched views.

If you want to know about scientific polling, mathematical statistics, data mining and what it means, how to analyze polls. Let me know. I have been involved with this in various ways from studying the topic to applying it for 25+ years. I am not an expert I am just the middle to upper middleman that uses this to determine what you are thinking. This type of stuff is done on you in many various ways;  it drives what you see, how business advertises to you, what is on your grocery store shelf, the topic a Presidential candidate chooses to talk on in a debate. Also, the best way to use all the various grades of tomatoes and how the line ropes are set up in your bank. I will tell you it works and you might be surprised how small the business is that does this. Sorry for ranting. I am a numbers man. I have done this for a florist, many  health clubs, a Casino\Entertainment|Leisure|Health Club Co., a County hospital and an upscale grocery store. Often we know what you are going to do before you do. Done with the rant.


David