We live in times where we just aren’t sure whether the news we access is true or not. Sadly, most people assume their own version rather than even looking for what actually happened or might be the case.
That this is true is confirmed by Roger McNamee, a former facebook investor in TIME itself: (http://time.com/5505441/mark-zuckerberg-mentor-facebook-downfall/)
“On Facebook, information and disinformation look the same; the only difference is that disinformation generates more revenue, so it gets better treatment. To Facebook, facts are not an absolute; they are a choice to be left initially to users and their friends but then magnified by algorithms to promote engagement. In the same vein, Facebook’s algorithms promote extreme messages over neutral ones, which can elevate disinformation over information, conspiracy theories over facts. Like-minded people can share their views, but they can also block out any fact or perspective with which they disagree.”
Caitlin Flanagan’s piece in The Atlantic slowly and painstakingly explains the 2 hours over video footage that that exonerate the demonized students of Covington Catholic from the March for Life, and she explains the whole debacle:
“How could the elite media—The New York Times, let’s say—have protected themselves from this event, which has served to reinforce millions of Americans’ belief that traditional journalistic outlets are purveyors of “fake news”? They might have hewed to a concept that once went by the quaint term “journalistic ethics.” Among other things, journalistic ethics held that if you didn’t have the reporting to support a story, and if that story had the potential to hurt its subjects, and if those subjects were private citizens, and if they were moreover minors, you didn’t run the story. You kept reporting it; you let yourself get scooped; and you accepted that speed is not the highest value. Otherwise, you were the trash press.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/media-must-learn-covington-catholic-story/581035/
The destroyed credibility of the NY Times, the Washington Post, and CNN as the most-respected news outlets hurts our ability to have real conversations as citizens. And it leaves normal people, like me, feeling hopelessly adrift for the means of even accessing accurate news coverage.
Stephanie Pacheco 