Real news are myth
I just wanted to post my thoughts about news and media role in todays events.
Let me tell you one thing.
I am originally from Balkans (living in US now) and I lived through the horror of war and I know what media can do to the nation.
I can see how most Americans are pro-Israel. It is hard not to be when every news channel is pro-Israel. No exceptions. It is almost like brain washing. It is the same in Middle East with Arab stations.
The only real news are the ones you get first hand on the battle ground, and most of us will never have privilege to do that, so i suggest doing what I do.
I go and search for news from 3-4 different parts of globe and draw conclusion for myself. I do know one thing: US media just like any other media is biased no matter what you (American born citizen) think of it. They have to be , otherwise they will have no news to report. Most major developments are leaked to news stations from the white house or various government officials. Imagine if you are CNN and you start bashing White House after they gave you a really good piece of information.
You think White House will give you the story next time? I think not. They will go with the WH friendly news, or more commonly called FOX news.
So all news stations have to be friendly with government. Of course some of the stations will throw in little calculated arguments (not the FOX news of course), but that’s about it.
Conclusion: No matter what you think of the news station, no matter what country you are from, know that you are not getting the right info. I thought our Balkan news is the most truthful news on the planet. Boy, I was wrong. I’ve learned my lesson, so this is what I do:
I watch/read BBC, CNN, FOX (just for laughs), some Arabic stations, and various online news sites and draw conclusion for myself. I would rate BBC the highest and FOX news the lowest, as far as the non biased news reports and reporters courage to chalenge in interviews.
I’ve yet to see completley non biased news channel or a station.
My $0.02
August 5th, 2006 at 4:13 am
I completely agree with my brother. The media in the United States has hit an all time low. I will not even talk about Fox News because they are not a news organization, but a mouthpiece of the Republicans.
I also agree with my brother’s way of gathering the news: looking at BBC and other international stations. BBC is very good when they talk about things non-British. If you are curious about the way news are reported in the Arabic world and want to gather what Arabic media is saying go to an excellent site: http://www.arabicnews.com. This is a compilation of many different Arabic networks and papers.
I am currently in Turkey and I must admit that in Turkey the coverage of the war has been of course blatantly pro-Lebanese. No mention of the Hezbollah shells that are hitting Israeli cities. Nevertheless, it is still indisputable that Israel’s response has been blatantly disrespetful of civilian life. Yesterday they attacked a Christian region of Beirut, killing many civilians, in a region which has nothing to do with Hezbollah.
The massiveness of death caused by Israeli attacks can be characterized as a war crime.
July 5th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I can definitely agree. I am a Arizona born and raised American. I can’t stand to watch any news channel my local cable agency will provide. Fox news is rather then biased, but honestly depressing! I know that the war and politics and anything rather pertaining to those subjects is the main thing on everyones mind. But even the local state news, all I ever see is another death, another shooting, another loss or damage. I don’t think I can even remember the last time a news channel reported something good happening. And the news should be a mixture of everything going on, not just the negative face of the world. Thank you both for the ideas on searching other region’s news listings, I think I might be a little more in tune from now on!