Seriously, when catastrophe and mayhem occur, you cannot rely on Cable or Network News to give you credible information... so why watch?
Sandy Hook, the Boston Marathon... The flurry of misinformation and in some cases dis-information is obvious.
You
hear someone was arrested and not arrested, suspects found or not found,
places on lock-down or not... is this all designed just to instill fear and
confusion? Or do they truly not know what the hell they are talking about?
From the shady characters apprehended in the woods near Sandy Hook School to the hooded shadowy figure on a rooftop by the bombings... we do not get the honest truth... just video and images and a lot of garbage commentary to go along with it.
The "News" freely makes announcements of information that is incorrect, confused, continually "breaking", and biased as well. It didn't take CNN and other biased "news" outlets to start making wild suppositions that the Boston Bomber or bombers were some "Right Wing Extremists" ... in fact it's almost like they have been praying for that to be so - and this type of biased speculation is considered News?
Shortly after the bombings - at 5 PM -
I was driving in my car and CBS radio news on WTIC 1080 News had a report via their sister
station in Boston, and the broadcaster was saying something along the lines of ...
"well, it's Patriot's day so this bombing might have something to do
with a domestic terrorist who may be linked to some militia group"... I
almost drove off the road I was so damn mad.
How is this unprofessional speculation and biased opinion considered "News"? It's not even fact... it's mere conjecture.
Getting back to the News...Are ratings more important than accuracy?
Should we allow ourselves to be pulled into urgent breaking News reports that are merely time wasting trash talk?
Whatever happened to careful reporting .. where facts mattered and information was verified and validated?
Whatever happened to newscasters that gave facts instead of biased speculation?
Whatever happened to reports that are meaningful? and truthful?
Every second we are bombarded with "breaking news" or "alerts" or some other made up level of "urgency".... and yet it is recycled information that is most likely incorrect.
And then they have the audacity to blame it on "the fog of confusion" because everything is happening so quickly.
But even when they say something that is wrong - they hardly ever retract it.
They just blame it on "conflicting reports".
Well, isn't it their job to sort out the correct story before saying anything?
And worse than that, they keep repeating misinformation for public consumption.
This isn't NEWS.
This is Garbage.
As consumers of news we ought to
demand reliable reporting.
We ought to pull ourselves away from the constant barrage of misinformation from these boneheaded newscasters who spew out nonsense and suppositions and wait for the press conferences or first hand eyewitness accounts.
Contact your local radio and TV news and demand accurate reporting.
Tell them we have had enough of the sensationalistic crap.
Tell them that as newsmen and women that their responsibility is to deliver truthful and accurate information to their viewers.
Otherwise it isn't News.... it's just making stuff up, either to get ratings or to control thought.