Who Can You Trust?
 

IN light of current events, and the Media's over hype of what’s going on. Who can we trust to get our information from? What news Organizations are not Influenced Politically Or censored by a feeling of Patriotism or Disgruntlement? Sure there's the Associated Press, And Reuters but but it feels like they tend to leave out information that you then hear from other sources[CNN, etc..]. I want to see the whole picture, Not a Patriotically Filtered, Religiously Biased, Resentment based information. How do you guys filter that you see or hear?

Gotta go with Mulder here. Trust No One.

I take my news from various sources across the globe, add in a generous helping of Sycamore skepticism, and try to make sense as best as possible.

     I tend to shoot for cross-referencing. See if you can hear it from more than one source. If you only hear it once ask yourself why it wouldn't get reported more often. Oh wait, I guess Syc covered that with the skepticism line. As with anything, you just do the best you can with what you have.

Sometimes you can actually check the sources that a news article cites. Like press releases, or documents, or statistics, or whatever. Sometimes you can just see what they're talking about and then go directly to the source. Like maybe the webpage of the organization that the news story is talking about.

Only sometimes, though. :)

The blogs are really good at fact-checking, because the big ones have a readership that is broad enough that truly knowledgeable people are involved.

Slashdot used to be awesome for that kind of thing; the editors might not have the sense to know the submitter was rooking them, but the readership did, and so the comments section would routinely be the best information available on tech news.

To expand on the cross-referencing/fact-checking idea:
I try and get information from more than one continent (besides the US). Mainland Europe and the BBC are two good choices. Iraqi Satellite TV, if you can get a feed, is absolutely hilarious to watch, as well. Better than America's Funniest Home Videos.

You mentioned Slashdot and blogs, and this immediately jumped to mind: The Googlewashing of our language. Here's the Original Register article. It's not that people do or don't believe a blog, it's that it can be perverted fairly easily either way.

I take the easy way out: I don't watch the major networks, read any newpapers, or watch the newschannels. I'm not predisposed to take anyone's word at face value.

I think that's America's Funniest Crotch-Whacking Videos. Come to think of it, the Iraqi news broadcasts have crotch whacking.

The tidbit about the female POW having 3 bullet wounds is a good example. Once one source reported it, they all jumped on the bandwagon. Wasn't true. The word "reported" = "someone said" which makes it no better than a possibility. I've found that by the time it makes it to the regular evening TV news it's probably true, as far as facts go. Of course you always have to be sceptical of the angle. I can truthfully say I have an 8 in penis if I look at a medical book showing what part of the body is included in that name.

I hate the fact that my <b>local news</b> airs stories about the war in Iraq. Just what part of "local" don't they understand?

Not that I watch it, anyway. But if they did away with that, and nix'd weather and sports' it might just hold my interest.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Well, one of the cities covered by your local news is connected to a military base. They can talk to soldiers wives and call them 'Human interest stories'. It is a local person so they have a loophole. Generally I find it much better to get all my local news from a paper where I can ignore any story I have no interest in. With no additional waste of my time.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of course the draw of TV news is that you can listen while running down random pedestrians in front of cops on GTA3 on your computer. If you can do that effectively and read a newspaper, I'm impressed.

[quote][quote]I hate the fact that my local news airs stories about the war in Iraq.Around here they stretch the local connection. If there's a flood in Chile, they interview some idiot whos mothers cousins college roommate had a friend in the Peace Corps in Chile in 1964.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is based out of Everett, WA. That's locally global. Incoming 'dong missles...