Information from the Mass Media

[KarenH]

As a participant in the World Wide Web, you can escape the major news media pabulum! There are online news sources, "blogs," and other means of getting information--the Internet allows such firsthand reports as Kyle mentions. (Of course, the possibility of bogus reports has increased along with the "individualization" of Internet reporting.) Everyone has some bias, of course, but using a variety of sources will expose you to different biases, or at least the biases you prefer. If you look around and ask people where they get their Internet news, you might find sites that present more facts and less opinion.

I believe that the root problem of many people in the news media is similar to the attitude experienced to some degree by everyone: "I am #1. My opinion counts. I'm right, at least most of the time, and you haven't proven I'm wrong, so I'll do the talking while you'll do the listening." The difference between us and them is that they've convinced the broadcast networks that they're wonderful enough to go on the air and tell the rest of us what to think.

Another problem, at least with broadcast media, is that their #1 "sin" is "dead" air. Something has to be stirring over the airwaves every second of every minute of every (keep inserting time units here). The book of Proverbs says, "When words are many, sin is not absent." In other words, if you keep blabbing long enough, you WILL say something you shouldn't.

Which, sooner or later, is what they do.