Who can you trust? The answer appears to be nobody.
Many people have stopped listening to mainstream news programmes on TV because they believe they are thinly disguised propaganda. They are probably right.
I lost all faith in the BBC when they deliberately inverted the sequence of events at the Orgreave Coke Plant in the Miner’s Strike. It was a deliberate editorial policy that was intended to misrepresent what had happened and place a pro-government slant on events. It was a lie.
Sky is even worse and as for Fox and most American news networks – they are blatantly biased.
Newspapers all have a distinct bias and slant the news according to their editorial policy. Most of the tabloids are atrocious, lying establishment scandal sheets. Some of the rubbish they come out with is so blatant propaganda that Goebbels would be ashamed. Even the more serious ones have their establishment bias – they are owned by wealthy people who want to express their own views.
The whole news machine drip-feeds the messages that the establishment want the population to believe. Seemingly Socialism cannot possibly work, Corbyn is a lunatic, Russia is the enemy, Assad is a monster, ISIS was not set up and financed by the West, North Korea is a monstrous place, Iran is behind much of the terrorism in the Middle East and wants a nuclear bomb to blow up Israel. But who knows?
What are the messages that they want us to believe?
Well one thing is certain – the system is set up and works for the top 1% at the expense of everybody else and they mean to continue this grossly unequal system. They want us to buy into the narrative they put out through the TV and newspapers. The establishment owns the media and controls what we think. A lot of what happens around the world is a profit-making project for rich people.
So many people put their faith in other sites on the web which they believe provide an unbiased view of world events.
I do not believe that those sources are unbiased. I believe they too have a bias and an agenda. They are as much propaganda as anything else. We are attracted to the views which reflect our own and reject all others. There is great danger in that.
So where do we turn to?
I do not think there is anywhere. What is best policy is to access a broad selection, weigh it up, think and keep an open mind – above all THINK and don’t buy into any one view.
Wise warning words, Opher. Thank goodness for magazines like Private Eye who do the detailed research so that you can reach your own conclusions! They have a go at everybody, so they’re without fear or favour. Plus the humour reaches places nothing else can. Ha, advert over!
Humour is often the best weapon Dave.
Excellent advice, my friend. You are quite right, there is no such thing as an unbiased news report or an unbiased historical account. It isn’t even possible. Why not? When reporting a news event, there is so much information, that the reporter is forced to sort and organize – then select the matter to be included. That entire necessary process is guided by bias – according to what the reporter sees as important. Then it is filtered by the news network’s editorial policies which you have already established here.
Exactly John. Thanks for adding that.
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There is always going to be biased reporting because everyone has their own opinion. That’s the way it’s always been. The only difference between the last century and now is that someone finally pointed it out — thanks to the internet where ALL is revealed. One story will say Trump is signing this bill, and the one directly below it says he’s not. It’s best to wait three or four days and THEN read the news to see what actually happened! 😉
Too much fake news me thinks. The facts can be lost inside the frenzy.
Nicely said! And great post overall.
– Locke Dor
Thank you. Glad you liked it.