Loss if integrity in news reporting. A question.

I grew up in Chicago, and my Dad was good friends with several policemen (fellow AMVETS & VFW members). Often they would come by the house and tell of what they had seen and heard recently. So much of this was not covered by the media, especially Chicago's 4 (or 5?) major newspapers. And the amazing part was (per my Dad) was that what the media did cover was generally not the "whole truth".

Being in the mid-late '50s, a good portion of these stories were likely "outfit related" and the media tended to soft pedal that.

Oh, make no mistake, the officers or my Dad had no clue I was eavesdropping in the other room. Otherwise, much of what I heard would just not have been said.
 

Maybe it was biased, to some degree .....but it was simple. Today we are so much more aware of EVERYTHING, to the point that we can't make up our minds about anything. The Information Age has given us so much that we are overwhelmed with the "left" and the "right" and everything in between.
1% of the population occupies 95% of the news. Why? because it sells. Does it represent the world we live in? NO!
Thank God that most people are stable, understand and ignore what the "experts" want to feed us.
The middle class, so to speak, is the life blood of this country. Thank God!
 
Della said:
I miss having the news reported in a serious standard voice. Now there are so many squeaky, fried voices on NPR, I can barely understand them, and the smirking and giggling on the morning TV shows can become really obnoxious.

Back in the 60's and 70's I do think they tried harder to get their facts right, but I also think they lied by omission more than they do now.
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These days it's as much about personalities as reading the news. The female news readers are always glamorous, which presumably is why they are chosen. They seem to trivialise everything with their superficial attitude.
 
VaughanJB said:
It was also biased back then. You just didn't recognize it.

However, the audience has changed over the years. Now, to be honest, people THINK they're way more informed than they really are. We're drenched on "news", and we've lost the ability to be discerning. So instead we go with emotion, and anything that supports our current world view.
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you really hit the nail on the head. My opinion is like yours. I never much paid attention to news, bias, view points. etc, etc. Now I do. All I have been able to figure out is that fox, cnn, Washington Post will give you the news and the republican perspective. AP and CBS seem to me more neutral in their reporting. No opinions, just the reports, thank you. I can think for myself.
As you say, most go with the emotions and any news that in some ways agrees with their feelings is the news for them. I mean no disrespect to anyone. I don't want opinions of the news, just the news
 
News shows seem to be taking a financial hit. A few months ago CTV news cancelled some of their programming. Now Global TV is going to shorter reports for local news and delivering it out of big cities. On Friday, one of the local anchors announced it was his last night. Instead of an hour broadcast, it will be 1/2 hour with someone from Vancouver and a few local features. Honestly, it should have been 1/2 hour locally years ago. I did feel sorry for the anchor when he shed a few tears.
 
Not sure what the issues are but it seems to me that the vast majority of the middle class has spoken. We know it's all about power and money, That's a given. What is interesting is how the big media views their bread and butter. How the high priced survey and polling companies earn their big bucks dictating what the average person thinks and will do at the polling. Then they end up doing the "shuck and Dive" when they end up wrong.
The vast middle class has had enough and has very definite opinions on how things should be done. The future is very interesting
bob
 
TennVet said:
This may be the most on target response yet. Confusing a journalist with someone on tv. The quest for ratings is one culprit. In these times broadcasters view the new department or channel as a profit center. I'm not certain it rose to that level in the corporate structure back in the 50's or 60's. I may be looking through rose colored glasses but it at least seemed like more of genuine effort to inform without heavy overtones of editorial comment or bias. Some maybe too much of the programming today can't even be considered news programs.
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Good points, TennVet! While there may be a distinction between "reporters" and "journalists", it's almost impossible to find any news: print, online, TV or radio, that does not promote and advocate for a particular ideology. Some are more obvious than others. It's tricky to discuss the issue without mentioning politics, so I'm keeping away from that.

But, I can put up with the sensationalism in news ("If it bleeds, it leads") but I can't stand a "news" source attempting to tell me what or how to think on any issue.
 
The only thing that I have come to the conclusion about is that AP news is the most unbiased. They seem to report what is happening and leave it at that. Opinions and views seem to be less than I view in other news locations. I would have to say that CBS is pretty close to AP. This is all just my opinion.
The interesting thing is that I am left wanting more information from AP until I realize that I am looking for options. That is the very thing that I don't want if I want unbiased reporting. It's amazing how we have been trained by the the news media.
Where is Walter Cronkite! David and Brinkley, Howard K Smith, Dan Rather, jeez even Edward R Morrow.
good evening to all.
 
chic said:
I grew up in the 1960's and saw the news everyday because my parents wanted to watch it. I mention this because many of you will remember these days. The news reported everything from politics to crime to the war in Vietnam. They covered weather events and even geological events like earthquakes and volcanoes. They reported the deaths of famous people.

They never told us how we should feel about the news they reported. There was no right way or wrong way to react to it, their job was to inform. This was a wonderful idea and I miss this kind of integrity in our modern world. How do you feel about this? Do you miss the news reporting of yesteryear? What's your take on it?
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I grew up in the 60's as well. All I can determine is that AP news is the most unbiased in the world we live in today
 
George1959 said:
This is very reasonable.

I'm doing the same here, but instead of a broadcasting station as Fox News I must use the internet, since there are no conservative/right stations on air here. They are simply not permitted by our government.

'Servus TV' from Austria ceased to air their program via satellite in Germany and another Austrian media platform 'Auf1' which got a window from 8 to 10 am and 6 to 10 pm on a German satellite channel got a fine of about half a million Euro. This is much for a small private platform. It had to stop sending news and documentaries via satellite after only some months.
In Germany there is not a single conservative broadcasting station, only some channels on the net (via YouTube). Thus I mostly use websites.
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Free speech is most important when saying things and expressing ideas that go against the grain, or criticizing those who hold power.
 
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Most of it is the numbers of intellectuals who have lower IQ's.
The game is fast talk and tossed lies of duration.
Longer talk / retell the lying crap, talks the better for the Mouthpiece!
 
Pepper said:
Extraordinary good sense of Germany not allowing right wing biased news sources. We've seen what Germany capable of, more than once. Never Again.
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Sadly forbidding speech is one thing dictators and assorted autocrats do. Eventually even keeping silent won’t be good enough. You must say the right words that support the cause or else!
 
Heil Hitler, Nod and acess. Bow and scrape. Eat Scat. Haha
Basically every bigmouth whatever is scamming the lowlife believers.
 
Choose your battles, as someone once said to me. How much are you willing to invest in the fight. Money always wins UNLESS you do your homework. No point in complaining. No one wants to hear. Either cowboy up or shut up. That being said you also must realize that you have a vote. Use it wisely.
No one today, is good enough to sit in Lincolns chair but life goes on. So use your vote. Yeah it's just one vote but you would be surprise at how many people feel the same as you. The middle class is the lifeblood of this country. They don't get in the news, they don't make headlines. They just live their lives, raise their families, pay their taxes and trust in the Lord. Powerful stuff in the scheme of things.
 

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