vilakins: (lark)
Nico ([personal profile] vilakins) wrote2005-10-01 09:41 am
Entry tags:

Lies, damned lies, and reporting

I found this article about Katrina myths in our paper. It makes me feel better about humanity but a lot worse than I already did about the press. I already knew they distort the news to sell it, but this isn't reporting, it's lazy bigoted fatcats feeding off each other's misinformation.

[identity profile] hafren.livejournal.com 2005-10-01 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
The same thing happened over here with the "facts" that kept coming out about the De Menezes case, and the story of the "piano man". I don't trust anything in a tabloid and I'm less sure about the braodsheets than I was. In fact I tend to check stories up on the net for a more balanced view...

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-01 06:37 am (UTC)(link)
Our newspaper, the NZ Herald, was pretty balanced but the TV news was more sensationalist, based as it was on US so-called reporting. I noticed that LJ posters picked up on the worst of it too.

I used to joke about the tabloid 'Truth' years ago as being anything but; I'd never trust any of them.

[identity profile] communicator.livejournal.com 2005-10-01 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
And did you hear about the people who stopped people from getting over the bridges out of New Orleans to safe ground? At gunpoint? I think the press have got some responsibility for whipping up that reaction. Disgusting all round.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-01 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
It is. They're the ones who showed the truly disgusting behaviour. And I have no patience with the 'I'm just an observer' excuse when they take pictures of suffering people and animals and do nothing to help. Hell, they probably asked the usual bastard reporter question, "How did you feel watching your [insert family relationship here] die?"

[identity profile] linda-joyce.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 11:39 am (UTC)(link)
I've turned into a complete cynic as far as the press is concerned, that article is pretty much what I expected.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I already took everything with a cup of salt, but that was all salt.