Too often I see, hear, and read terrible explanations and coverage of complex issues in the media. The scripts read by the TV news are poorly written, poor grammar, misplaced modifiers, and sloppy.
False equivalency is rampant - great example is the Hillary Clinton emails fettucce.
"The Hillary Clinton emails story comes to an end"
By Paul Waldman Opinion writer covering politics October 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/21/hillary-clinton-emails-story-comes-an-end/
"With the possible exception of the credulousness granted to the George W. Bush administration’s propaganda push in advance of the Iraq War, the insane amount of coverage given to Clinton’s emails was the worst media screw-up of my lifetime. And apart from an exception here or there, you’ll find almost no journalists — and certainly no news organizations — willing to acknowledge how badly they blew this most minor of misdemeanors out of proportion. The consequence is that Donald Trump is now the most powerful person on Earth.
The email story shows how double standards can develop and then produce shockingly unfair coverage in ways that absolutely affect the outcome of the race. So while hundreds of stories were being written about Clinton’s emails, the trail of potentially scandalous behavior by Trump was treated as barely worthy of attention. You’d see a story or two about his shady casino bankruptcies, or his stiffing small businesses out of money he owed them, or about how his modeling agency exploited young foreign women in conditions one described as “modern-day slavery,” and then the story would disappear, washed under a tide of “Look at these crazy rallies Trump is holding” reports.
At the same time, the media were drawing false equivalencies between Clinton and Trump, and treating her transgressions as far worse than his, despite the fact that the opposite was obviously true."
"Media hypocrisy is destroying America, but MEMES are the problem? Give me a break!"
14 Oct, 2019 19:29 / Updated
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/470927-trump-meme-video-kingsman-outrage/
"Mainstream media are outraged over a meme video depicting President Donald Trump shooting his critics – but they absolutely loved the movie it was based on, and think nothing of actual violence committed against Trump supporters.All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again, as the media mob pursues rage clickbait. This time, the hand-wringing and pearl-clutching is over a meme – excuse me, “fake” and “doctored” – video shown during the American Priority Conference at Trump Doral in Florida this weekend."
Was this a silly, funny video? Perhaps it could be if we did not have a President who has publicly promoted violence, and a President who is hell bent on dividing the country. A video like this gives some people ideas toward violence.
So have we seen any media analysis of why Tweety allows such a hateful video to ever get displayed? Has Tweety criticized it? Is Tweety happy to promote such violence and further divide the country?
"Reactions to the video go way beyond what cartoonist Scott Adams has described as seeing “two movies on the same screen.” One liberal comedian – entirely seriously – zeroed in on Trump “killing powerful black people” to lament the “cancer that is Trumpism.”
Actress Kathy Griffin – who once thought it was a great idea to do a photoshoot with a fake severed head of Trump – now claimed she was the real victim, as the video shows her “being murdered” by the president.
“Waiting for Donald Trump to condemn the video of him committing mass murder that was shown at his resort to his supporters, and to apologize to the families of those targeted,” anti-gun crusader Shannon Watts tweeted unironically."
The obviously doctored video literally shows Tweety Trump shooting Kathy Griffin in the face! What fun for Tweety, and OK for Tweety to od, not for Griffin to do, cause he be "The Prez / KING!" lol!
I am sick of how these media outlets stretch a story into an absurd serious of silly questions and scenarios, making a mountain out of a mole hill, and reducing an extremely important story to a vacuous 30 second clip!
"The Media Bubble Is Worse Than You Think"
We crunched the data on where journalists work and how fast it’s changing. The results should worry you.
By JACK SHAFER and TUCKER DOHERTY May/June 2017
This article analyzes why and how the media missed Trump winning in 2016.
" . . . nobody has produced a better argument for how the national media missed the Trump story than FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, who pointed out that the ideological clustering in top newsrooms led to groupthink. “As of 2013, only 7 percent of [journalists] identified as Republicans,” Silver wrote in March, chiding the press for its political homogeneity. Just after the election, presidential strategist Steve Bannon savaged the press on the same point but with a heartier vocabulary. “The media bubble is the ultimate symbol of what’s wrong with this country,” Bannon said. “It’s just a circle of people talking to themselves who have no fucking idea what’s going on.”"
"Major Flaws in Journalism"
Why good news media become #fake by default.
Floris Koot May 26 · 12 min read
https://medium.com/the-gentle-revolution/major-flaws-in-journalism-cf9577e32af
"
“1. Scandals & Sensation (read need to attract audiences)
More drama means more viewers, means more advertisements. This made Trump big and Bernie boring. Emotions outweigh facts. Explosions outweigh peaceful transition movements just doing their thing. So guess what you get to see too much of and what too little of.
2. Owner & Advertisers interests.
News is too often treated as a product. Almost all news is political agenda driven. Protecting interests outweighs truth and nuance. If the boss of the company supports certain political stances, than those get way better positive coverage. Interest of clients count too. Even, or especially, the government may buy airtime, and everyone pretends it’s fair news.”
~ quote taken from Dealing with Fake & Manipulative Media"
This is a snippet of a well written article. Go read it to get all the advice journalists need to improve their reports.
"John Oliver examines journalism's many problems: the blame is on us This article is more than 3 years old"
Describing the industry’s ‘dire straits’, Oliver devoted the whole episode of his HBO show to analysing the depressing financial state of journalism in 2016
Adam Gabbatt in New York @adamgabbatt Mon 8 Aug 2016 10.43 EDT
" . . . the comedian stressed the importance of traditional reporting by citing the number of times newspapers are quoted by television news channels.“It’s pretty obvious without newspapers around to cite, TV news would just be Wolf Blitzer endlessly batting a ball of yarn around,” Oliver concluded.
“The media is a food chain which would fall apart without local newspapers.”"
So John emphasizes the need for newspapers.
