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Check Snopes first

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I'd rather we go back to the days of competent news reporting and verifying stories before publicizing them.

That's the difference between news and gossip.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

I'd rather we go back to the days of competent news reporting and verifying stories before publicizing them.

That's the difference between news and gossip.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

Not you personally, Polite. Sorry if it came off that way. I meant your country as a whole.

After all, you guys had your asses handed to you in Afghanistan (same as everyone else who's tried), yet you went hopping right back in at our whistle, and even stuck around for another US President who is pretty straightforward about his contempt for ye olde special relationship.

Mrs. Thatcher would be so proud.

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

I don't disagree with you, Muse, but I think the problem runs deeper, and sadder, than mere competence.

For all too many news outlets, the bottom line is that folks aren't willing to pay for the high-quality news we claim to want. Even the venerable Edward R. Murrow, let's not forget, struggled to keep ratings and sponsors. I don't think there's a journalist alive these days who hasn't feared for not only his or her own job but for the industry as a whole, who hasn't worked like hell to produce good reporting in the face of shrinking resources. I doubt, for instance, that there are many bloggers or iPhone users who'd have scored quotes from the U.S. ambassador on the ground, the Secretary of State, and the person in whose name the flyers were ostensibly distributed (and who denied it).

It's also important to remember that what we think of as older and better news coverage is, in the sweep of human history, quite recent. For much of American history, newspapers were unabashedly partisan, and Yellow Journalism--which literally built William Randolph Hearst a castle--long predates TV and the Internet.

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ORIGINAL: Politesub53

I love the way you omit to mention Robert gates and his view re Obama, since he, a Republican states the opposite of your claim.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

I don't disagree with you, Muse, but I think the problem runs deeper, and sadder, than mere competence.

For all too many news outlets, the bottom line is that folks aren't willing to pay for the high-quality news we claim to want. Even the venerable Edward R. Murrow, let's not forget, struggled to keep ratings and sponsors. I don't think there's a journalist alive these days who hasn't feared for not only his or her own job but for the industry as a whole, who hasn't worked like hell to produce good reporting in the face of shrinking resources. I doubt, for instance, that there are many bloggers or iPhone users who'd have scored quotes from the U.S. ambassador on the ground, the Secretary of State, and the person in whose name the flyers were ostensibly distributed (and who denied it).

It's also important to remember that what we think of as older and better news coverage is, in the sweep of human history, quite recent. For much of American history, newspapers were unabashedly partisan, and Yellow Journalism--which literally built William Randolph Hearst a castle--long predates TV and the Internet.

Maybe they could make a huge plaque, saying, "It used to be worse!" and hang it in the newsroom to inspire the staff.

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ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
Whether the media is leading the public in its dumbing down, or whether the dumbing down is the media offering its consumers what they want is an interesting point. Possibly it deserves a thread of its own.

An important point too. Democracies rely on the mass media to inform citizens about current affairs. For most of us, the mass media has a (near-) monopoly in ths role. The information we are presented with determines in large part the decisions we make. Control of the mass media and the information they deliver to the populace is critical to what kind of decisions people make.

If we agree that the public interest is best served by a quality independent mass media, presenting an umembellished set of facts to its consumers, how best can this outcome be generated and sustained?

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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
I would say it mostly depends on the consumers of mass media. There's never been any shortage of newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets - even before the advent of the internet. Nowadays, there's all sorts of information and sets of facts available to consumers from a wide variety of sources from all over the world. Not just the major media outlets, but also blogs and independent sites from one end of the political spectrum to the other. We don't really have a controlled media, and the monopoly of mass media in this country is driven primarily by consumer choice, not because they don't have access to other media.

What I find interesting is not that there's any lack of information out there, but it's the uncertainty over how much of that information is truly reliable and factual. The sources of information and their possible political bias might be called into question. One can find a lot of conflicting and contradictory information out there, and it's often hard for the average person to be able to figure out what's what.

Of course, there are always helpful individuals out there to tell people which sources they should believe versus sources they should not believe. Disputes over sources of information have also become an integral part of our political culture.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

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ORIGINAL: Politesub53

I love the way you omit to mention Robert gates and his view re Obama, since he, a Republican states the opposite of your claim.

Get past the cheerleader rooting for his team crap, Polite. Party line doesn't mean jack shit to me (see any abortion thread I've participated in for examples of that). I don't get my opinions through someone else's partisan filter.

Gates is a douchebag, and I ignore the fuck. I've been saying "get the fuck out of Afghanistan" since the day it became moot to say "stay the fuck out of Afghanistan." Who is in the White House hasn't had any bearing on that.