Posted by Jeremy Andrews on April 22, 2013 at 20:28:06:
In Reply to: the diagnosis of misinformation posted by twopercent on April 22, 2013 at 16:27:06:
Neither Mark Belling or Glenn Beck can be taken seriously as "News" They are talk and politically motivated. They'll take some information, report the information that they want to report, leave out the other parts, and make stuff up.
News is journalism. People who go out and get the information from the actual sources and pass it along.
I couldn't listen to any of the news coverage on the major cable networks because it was all a bunch of people shouting back and forth and reporting every tiny rumor that was handed to them.
I listened to the Boston Police Scanner for information on what was going on there. Because it was from the source.
On the day of the bombings, I listened to A small AM station in Newton, MA (WNTN) is a brokered Ethnic station. Probably some of the best coverage I heard. The OM/Sales guy stayed on the air instead of just signing the station off as they normally would (Even though it's licensed with 3 watts at night)
He calmly reported what was confirmed. He talked to people who were there, friends, family. And he refused to report anything that wasn't officially confirmed.
Even though the OM of that station isn't exactly a journalist, and the station is a brokered ethnic format, he probably had some of the best coverage in the local area. Just straight facts.
That's the difference.
Media, especially cable news, has a serious problem with going back and forth (hyper) when something like this happens and spit out as much information and even rumors as they possibly can. The motive? To be the first to break something. So they'll go along and report something that is not confirmed, and simply apologize if it was wrong or just ignore it and continue on with the new information. It's impossible to follow. It's just a bunch of noise.
Real news and journalism in situations like these is very hard to come by these days.