If all the news outlets are fake, if all politicians are liars pushing their own agendas where does the average person get the real story on politics?
Asked by
SQUEEKY2 (
23474
)
February 11th, 2020
Who can one trust to get the real story?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
29 Answers
Listen to ALL of the news stories from ALL of the sources, then winnow out the truth.
Look at intelligent independent non-corporate journalists who are not actually mainly entertainers and/or pandering.
Also look at a variety of international sources.
Also, look at media that has a stake and/or bias, see what they say and realize that their views are probably at least not biased against their own positions. So when you see Forbes, Fortune, or other business / wealth / industry / corporate media denouncing something that they might be expected to be aligned with or in their own interests, it’s probably at least that as valid if they’re saying something that seems to go against their own bias. (e.g. If they’re saying Sanders is getting unfairly treated in the media, DNC, and corporate media, or that Trump is terrible in various ways, it shows these points are so clear that they feel they need to speak straight about it to retain credibility.)
Thank you for reminding me of that question @canidmajor .
Nothing else to add?
I don’t trust anything. I trust in clips, of what people actually say. Which is why I don’t support Trump…
Slightly off topic, but you might find it very interesting, listen to the freakonomics podcast about presidential power. It goes through rather objectively what Obama and Trump did while president, and also back somewhat to others presidents too. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/president-matter-redux/
All outlets? Nowhere then.
Try to get as close to the facts as possible. Most news outlets actually do get some of the facts out there. What usually happens though is that they then cherry pick the pieces they want to drive a narrative. Take the Charlottesville lie for example. There are quite a few news outlets that posted the whole news conference transcript. At some point in that exchange, President Trump denounced the Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists a number of times. He said there were some very fine people on both sides, talking about the people that originally showed up for the protests. Peaceful protests. He denounced the violence. He denounced the N-Ns and WSs. He denounced the Antifa/BLM group that showed up with clubs and shields. He denounced the guy that ran his car into the crowd. Yet most of the news outlets took a phrase out of all that he said, took it out of context, made up a story about it and spread the lie. It got repeated by many liberal outlets, by Dem politicians, by night time show hosts, and soon, it was thought he actually said Neo-Nazis were very fine people.
When you hear these things, it ought to trigger you to not blindly believe what you are hearing. Does it really make sense for a POTUS to say that N-Ns and WSs are very fine people? It seems unlikely. So go back to the source. Go to the actual transcript and read it for yourself. That takes a lot of the lies out of the picture and helps you see the manipulation that is going on more clearly.
The impeachment was another fine example. The whistleblower claimed Trump forced Ukraine to start an investigation into Biden to dig up dirt. He claimed Trump pressured Zelenskyy 8 times on the phone call for this. So Trump released the transcript. It showed that he asked Zelenskyy for a favor of looking into Crowdstrike and any interference Ukraine might have played in the 2016 elections. He also talked about other sketchy things and that was when he mentioned Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. The word “Biden” showed up exactly 2 times in the entire conversation. It showed that everything the WB claimed was entirely false. But that didn’t stop the media from continuing to push it as truth, ignoring the transcript. It didn’t stop Schiff from “re-writing” the conversation during the inquiry. So if you only believe what the news tells you is the truth, you would believe that Trump did nothing but harp on starting an investigation into Biden. But if you go to the transcript you can start to see where the narrative deviates from the truth.
Always try to get the whole story before believing any one account.
^^Doesn’t matter if he said the words denouncing assholes. He was an asshole for undermining his own bullshit. He is a liar. He LIES. Get it? If you stop for just one full minute emphatizing and symphatizing with white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis I guarantee you you will get it.
@mazingerz88 what is your problem?!? I have never supported white supremacists or Neo-Nazis. I have always said they are assholes. So has Trump. It is only you and the lies you have been sold that make it anything else. If you truly believe he, or me even, actually said something complimentary about them, post it. Otherwise, STFU.
Trump lies. You still don’t get it. But here’s the thing. You do. Not sure why you are not painting him as the asshole that he is.
Sorry, they have been mad for over 3 years. Time to stop being children and grow up.
@mazingerz88 So let me get this straight. In your mind, since Trump has denounced the idiot Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists repeatedly, that means he supports them? Do you ever really stop to think about the crap you are spewing? You truly have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
He lies. He is a real dangerous whore of a man who is playing local and global politics, nothing more. Nothing. More. You trump defenders could be the ones who are deranged just that you don’t even know it.
I’ve said it before. If Trump would just stop talking/tweeting so much, he wouldn’t be in so much trouble…
There wouldn’t be many things that any media could replay him saying, and he wouldn’t seem like such a lunatic. But. The empty can, rattles the most…
@MrGrimm888 I’m not so sure about that. The Dems started talking about impeachment before he was sworn in. They have tried for 3 years to get him tossed out of office. And the media has been just as bad. We discussed in a different thread that the WaPo headline of the impeachment starting was posted 19 minutes after he was sworn in. And take a look at the Charlottesville lie. They literally took a few words out of a conversation and used it entirely out of context, ignoring all the rest that entirely disputed their narrative and they ran with it. Those sorts of things have nothing to do with Trump saying or doing anything. It has to do with the fact he won the election.
I will say I think he tweets way too much. It is one of the things that annoys me about him. But I don’t believe that is what causes all the problems. The problems were there.
I think it’s important to use some critical thinking and common sense (yes, I know these are often meaningless buzzphrases, but I think they’re important here). For one, not all news sites are equal. Some are more reputable than others. If you’re reading an article and it seems to be confirming all your opinions, consider looking at a different source that doesn’t seem to be tailor-made to fit your biases. Remember that “biased” is not the same as “fake”. Biased means there’s an opinion injected in there; it doesn’t mean that it’s outright lies. Look at a wide variety of sources and see where they overlap/agree. If a claim can’t be proven true or false, it may be best to dismiss it for the time being.
As for politicians, I don’t care about them as much, but the key is to see through the talking points and bluster and attacks on other politicians and look at what they’re actually proposing: what are they really going to do once they’re in office? That’s how I will be voting, on the issues and how much I realistically think they can get done. Not on identity and “team” membership.
The “post-truth” era is a sad result of the sheer amount of information out there, particularly on the internet. There are so many contradictions and so many conflicting narratives and so many lies that go unsupported (and unchallenged) that some people are throwing up their hands and saying “I don’t know what’s true anymore” and potentially even concluding that there is no truth at all. Which, of course, couldn’t be more false.
@seawulf575 . I agree with some of what you said. But…
I think a lot of the core reasons for the dems going after him, was because he was so unqualified. And, they feared what he would do in office. Many of those fears, turned out not to be unfounded…
It’s relevant to note, that it isn’t just dems who hate him. He’s typically met with protesters, wherever he travels in the world…
I understand that you can’t please everyone. Especially when you are the person in charge. But, Trump is on a different level.
@MrGrimm888 Trump is on a different level, that is true. But then, so is the radical opposition against him. So are the 24/7 attacks on him. This behavior by the Dems and the media are unprecedented in our world.
You mentioned him getting met with protesters everywhere he goes in the world. This is not really unexpected. Most POTUS’s meet some sorts of protest wherever they go. But let’s think about this for a moment. When the biased liberal media cranks out lies and negative reporting (almost 100%) 24/7, why wouldn’t people in other nations think it was true? Let’s be honest, if I see a report about Macron or Merkel or even Trudeau, I don’t generally dig in to find out if it is the truth or not. I don’t really care enough. So if they had negative reports hitting my news feeds 24/7 I might think they were complete douchebags.
^I respect your opinion. But, I disagree. Point taken though…
Radical opposition by Americans to a corrupt, shameless, cruel, treasonous evil reality TV show host piece of psychophatic human turd taking a dump in the WH….shocking? Bull. Shit.
@seawulf575 When the biased liberal media cranks out lies and negative reporting (almost 100%) 24/7< Your words but you said they do get some facts right you have to listen to them a lot what suits your opinion Fox and Bright fart have never reported anything I agree with so does that make EVERYTHING they report lies??
So by your words do the right wing media outlets crank out lies 24/7 as well?
IMO. Both sides, report facts, with biases.
That I do agree with 100%^ But if you swing right it seems the left lie about things more, the same if you swing left ,the right are all lies.
I suppose, I swing left. But. There are many issues, I swing right.
@SQUEEKY2 there are right wing sites that do ignore facts. They put out opinion and try to pass it as fact. If you go back to my first post on this thread, you will see that I don’t take anything at face value. And there will be things that right wing sites will report on that left wingers won’t because it doesn’t fit their narratives. And vice versa. But just because the source is Breitbart or Fox or Gateway Pundit or Vox or Huffington Post or WaPo doesn’t mean that what they are putting out is a lie. And please note that negative reporting is not always the same as lies…it is biased reporting. It ignores all good and only skews things so they come across as negatives. And it isn’t just me that sees the huge liberal bias in most of the MSM.
Answer this question 
