Our friend Jerry over at Grumpy’s Grumblings has a new post that is spot on regarding the state of truth in our nation today. It is well worth the few minutes it will take you to read and ponder it, for one must ask the question: Is this the new ‘normal’ or can we fix this? Thank you, Jerry, for your thoughtful words!
When Tropes Trump Truth
I have a journalism degree and I worked within the newspaper industry for nearly two decades. While I never worked as a “hard-news” reporter, I did spend a year as a copy editor and also wrote feature stories for the business pages of several newspapers. So, I think I have a better-than-average understanding of how a newsroom is meant to operate.
But with or without a journalism degree, I think most folks know—or, more precisely, knew—what the primary purpose of any news organization should be: to factually inform its readers or viewers about events and phenomena that have occurred or are occurring within their communities—and beyond.
Forgivable Errors Versus Intentional Misreporting
News reporters are fallible humans who occasionally make mistakes in their reporting. Most of us are willing to forgive those relatively rare reporting inaccuracies. Occasional unintentional mistakes are forgivable. Intentional misreporting is—or should be— intolerable.
Filosofa's Word 
Grumpy’s Grumblings is a great name for a blog, and I wish I had thought of that. 🙂
Truth is like History, the winners write it from their own perspective.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Yes, it is definitely a great name for a blog!
Rather like that saying, “He with the most toys, wins.”
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Some people want to be lied to. They don’t care if it’s lies. They want to hear whatever aligns with what they already think is true. Fox is only one voice telling these lies & getting rid of Fox or denouncing their media hosts isn’t going to change the fact that people want to be lied to. They’ll find someone & some other media outlet to lie to them.
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This is very true. I’ve long thought that surely the masses didn’t actually believe what Trump and others were telling them, but since it was what they WANTED to hear, they pretended to believe it. And you’re right … back when Fox lost viewers for calling the Arizona race, the viewers went to NewsMax and OAN … there will always be some outlet willing to tell them what they want to hear.
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
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Thanks, Ned!!!
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Jill, thanks for sharing Jerry’s excellent post. Jerry’s opinion on these matters has merit and is based on experience. Purposefully gaslighting its viewers is clear disinformation. What little credibility Fox News had has been destroyed by multiple folks at Fox News, including its owner. Just like the Catholic Church, Fox News failed to learn the lesson that its leaders need to police bad behavior. To be frank, folks like Tucker Carlson should be terminated for what they have done and are still going. Gullible watchers are not paying attention to what he has admitted in his own emails. Plus, his white washing of the January 6 insurrection is just flat out wrong.
We need even more conservative voices to step up and call out Fox News and Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham for their gaslighting, which is a ckever term for what it is – lying. Keith
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My pleasure, Keith! Yes, I think that Murdoch will pay a price for not immediately firing Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and others who admitted to the lies they told … admitted, but showed less that no remorse. But then, Murdoch himself is not without blame here, so he deserves what is coming down the road.
I was pleased to see that a number of GOP members of Congress were fairly outraged over Tucker’s J6 production. They were, after all, there and feared for their own lives, so methinks they know better than Tucker what transpired on that day. Sadly, there are too many sheep who will believe Tucker’s version over all others. We are fast becoming a nation of ignorance. Sigh.
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Jill, that pleases me as well. I saw where Trump is now blaming Mike Pence for the insurrection, actually admitting to it being his scheme. Keith
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Yes, I saw that and rolled my eyes. He has NEVER, not once, taken responsibility for anything he’s done. His parents must have never once said, “No” to him when he was a child, for he truly sees himself as invincible. I hope the DoJ proves him wrong … and SOON!!!
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It all relies on the personal ethics of individual reporters, if the reporter reports the news, without, too much bias, but that rately happens, because, we are party-oriented in our viewpoints, which makes it even harder, to find the news with the facts being reported these days, especially when the reporters all have their own opinions on the matters they are, reporting, this makes it hard on the readers of the newspaper, to get the real stories in their countries.
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It’s funny, but 10 years ago I would have argued with you that “we are party-oriented in our viewpoints” … I would have argued that we have our own ideology and vote for the PERSON who best reflects our views. But a lot has changed since then, and yes, today we are very much party-oriented. I feel like we have been pushed into those partisan boxes by the ‘other side’ being so radical that we seek shelter in our own boxes. Somme media outlets try hard to “see both sides”, but when one side stands on a platform of lies, that’s not really a valid comparison, is it?
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I was very young when Cronkite chose to retire, but already aware enough to sense something very wrong developing in our “free” news. This feeling was confirmed fifteen years later, when a bunch of hitchhikers from Europe told me they all felt sorry for us. “Your news,” they sympathized, “doesn’t tell you anything at all!”
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You are so right! I didn’t see it back then, but have since opened my eyes. Even the outlets that I once relied on for factual reporting now have a biased slant.
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He called it, early days.
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Thanks, Jill
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My pleasure, Jerry!
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