Thread: Biased Media - Who do you believe?

I am sure this happens in all countries at this point and has been happening for a while but the last few years has been the worst. I see fake stories being pushed to cause people to get angry with each other and it seems they want it this way.

When it comes to biased media, who do you know who to trust or believe?

When it comes to traditional medias (newspaper, radio and tv) in France, there isn't really that "fake news" trend.
However we have a long tradition of corporate censoring because traditional medias are mostly owned by great group such as Bouygues or Dassault (yes, the armament company). But our press is perfectly free to say things, great groups (and the state for public medias) only dictate what they don't say and how they say what they say.
Everything is about money. The closest thing to "fake news" problem we have is comoditized islamophobia in the media but hey; it's not like the media openly demonizing a religion led to anything bad in the last century right ? Oh wait...

Then there are some stories that force medias to be honest because this kind of story is like a netflix major series such as (currently holding a lot of mediatic attention)
the Benalla Case. But don't get it wrong, they're transparent because it sells. Otherwise it's all for the audimat.
Of course fear mongering is widespread.

I think that pretty much all media is biased. At the very least they're leaning on either side. I can't really think of any paper/channel that's completely on the fence. Generally speaking I'd be more inclined to trust right-leaning media as that matches my political stance, but it's not as simple as that. Both sides perpetuate fake news. So long as you do your homework and don't blindly choose to believe a more controversial opinion right away you should be able to avoid the majority of fake news.

I don't like the left's tendency to jump to conclusions so often and to chastise white people (particularly males) for the stupidest reasons, along with their avoidance of anything that may hurt minority fee-fees. Take that recent van attack for example. The police already knew the attacker frequented ISIS websites and was a potential threat, but most media outlets chose to exclude this information because reporting the truth ain't cool anymore and makes you xenophobic! That's not to say a lot of stupid shit doesn't come from right-wing media as well though.

Originally Posted by Mantis

I think that pretty much all media is biased. At the very least they're leaning on either side. I can't really think of any paper/channel that's completely on the fence. Generally speaking I'd be more inclined to trust right-leaning media as that matches my political stance, but it's not as simple as that. Both sides perpetuate fake news. So long as you do your homework and don't blindly choose to believe a more controversial opinion right away you should be able to avoid the majority of fake news.

I don't like the left's tendency to jump to conclusions so often and to chastise white people (particularly males) for the stupidest reasons, along with their avoidance of anything that may hurt minority fee-fees. Take that recent van attack for example. The police already knew the attacker frequented ISIS websites and was a potential threat, but most media outlets chose to exclude this information because reporting the truth ain't cool anymore and makes you xenophobic! That's not to say a lot of stupid shit doesn't come from right-wing media as well though.

Yeah I have seen some right wing media that just makes me shake my head but it seems far more common on the left. I am a very traditional person with Christian morals so I fall to the right though I consider myself to be closer to the center with certain things. I can respect people and not agree with them but it seems like I don't get the same back these days. Kind of like the whole "you have to agree with everything I say and do or you don't love me!" thing. Every single person on this earth has something they will not agree with on with anyone. That is the beauty of this though. Different views and worldviews helps us grow so long as we aren't resisting it. Like the whole progressive left thing is actually going in reverse and I don't know how so many people are blind to it. You can be a wonderful person with brilliant ideas and be liberal, left, democrat, etc. but you have to be willing to discuss things and grow.

In France political stance is very open in medias so you can easily tell who's on which side.
Also in France the most "fake news" come from extreme right-wing and the perfect example is the "news"-paper called <<Le Point>> and <<Valeurs actuelles>>.
These two litterally blame foreigners/muslims/political oponents for everything and are what i call : social pyromaniac, because they always want to divide people and make them clash.
And as i'm in History university, their stance is chillingly reminding me of second XIXth/first XXth century antisemitism, the only difference is that it switched from hating jews to hating muslims/arabic-like people.
For the left-winged bullshit it's mainly about being blinded by the marxist themes. And i say blinded because marxism has a lot of good points but if you only see the world through that you're as dumb as the afore-mentionned opponents.
Also extreme left refuses to see the few problems coming for imigrants but i think it more forgivable than making these people the cause for everything wrong.

But then again these are the extreme cases, come back to my first reply to have global view.
Of course i'm not a sociologist but it's my conclusion after trying to analyse as objectively as i can.

Right now the media here are all biased. They all have their own agendas. It's either pro government which half is fiction or anti government which is half science fiction.

People are really easy to fool, myself included. That is why I made the decision to stay away from mainstream media. Personally, I feel like if there is a mass media mute button, then it should be pressed ASAP!

Everything is exaggerated because no one wants boring. So what's left to do is create a ton of fake news possible, to keep the audience occupied with irrelevant stuff.

This guy, he looks like he knows what's going on.

I'd have to agree that it seems to be a far more common occurrence on the left (I'm looking at YOU, CNN and MSNBC) to publish news that is outright fake to push an agenda or narrative. However, the right is by no means entirely innocent either, although I see them exercising a bias more often than outright fabricating or altering the content of news stories.
I've gotten to the point where I simply vote with my wallet on this issue. I don't purchase cable TV, and I use AdBlock on their sites if I must visit for some reason. Until they can provide me with an accurate account of events I won't consume media from any mainstream sources.

No one. Everyone in this world shares things on social media or TV not only because it is their job but also for personal reasons. Honesty is one thing that is so scarce in today's world.