journalism at it's best.......

[Anonymous-0]

A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.



A reporter has seen the whole scene, and addressing the biker, says "Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I have ever seen a man do in my whole life."



“Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and did what I felt was right."



"Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's papers will have this on the first page. What type of motorcycle do you ride?"



"A Harley Davidson the biker replies."



The following morning, the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions; and reads on the first page:



“BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH”

 

[rrlund]

Boy,ain't that the truth. The local TV station did such a hack job on a story about property tax assessment change notices last night,I was so p!ssed off I was shaking! They won't soon forget the email that I sent them! It was the second year that they've done such an uninformed piece of garbage on that subject.

 

[John Eberly]

My ex-wife was a reporter for United Press International - I saw first hand how what happend and what was reported weren't always the same!

 

[Anonymous-0]

True. News used to be based on facts. Now it is innuendo and gossip.

 

[Dick L]

News has always and still is based on facts.

Of some sort. ^D

You have just learned to tell the difference.

 

[JML755]

I always thought that when a reporter quoted somebody in an article (using quotation marks) that it was verbatim. NOT NECESSARILY TRUE! Several years ago, I was interviewed by a reporter for a story in the local paper. This was done over the phone. When the article came out, I was very surprised at some of the statements attributed to me (in quotation marks). The reporter paraphrased my answers like crazy to suit the intent of the article. It was like he was hearing what he wanted to hear.

Another pet peeve is when they shove a microphone and camera in front of somebody involved in a tragedy and say "how do you feel that your xxxx just died?" I believe that, as a rule, reporters and their editors/publishers are after ratings (electronic or print media). I am tired of TV news screaming every 10 seconds that the story we are watching is an EXCLUSIVE. I don't care and it turns me off.

CNN does a great job of sensationalizing everything. Classic example was Katrina and New Orleans. They kept screaming over and over about how they got in, but the disaster aid wasn't there yet. There's a big difference between getting 1 SUV with a reporter and cameraman to a location and mobilizing trailer loads, convoys, etc. I still remember a story where a reporter was standing knee deep in water doing a report, making it look like he was in the middle of a lake. Another station showed a shot of the 1st reporter standing about 10 feet from dry pavement where his cameraman was. LMAO

Sorry about the rant, but I trust reporters about as much as I trust politicians and you struck a nerve.

 

[Goose]

I've always said, if President Bush walked on water, the mainstream media would headline it, "President Bush Can't Swim!".

However, as myself a former member of the working press, and I'm darned proud to be able to say "former", I can say it's not as easy as it looks to write a news item on something and not let your personal feelings enter into it, particularly when it's an emotional issue such as child abuse or worse.

Seems it's becoming more blatant all the time, though.

 

[Nancy Howell]

Personally, I am sick and tired of the unelected media running the country by selecting what to report and how to report it. Its very easy to distort something by by choosing which facts to include and which ones to leave out. Case in point - before the troop surge, negative press about the war was all you heard for weeks. Now that reports are coming in that the troop surge has been effective, do you hear anything? Right now all you hear is election hoorah. This morning they said McClain had a rally in such & such place, Huckaby was wherever, Clinton was some place, and external_link had over 11,000 people in attendance at his rally in wherever it was and XX,000 thousands are expected at his rally tonight in ????. Now, why did they report only the attendance for external_link? Some reporters don't even attempt to hide their biases anymore. If I even watch the news, its purely for entertainment because so much of the facts have been slanted and distorted.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Best post of the day.

 

[buickanddeere]

Same problem around here but worse. A smoldering fluorescent light fixture ballast in a nuclear plant gets reported as a Chernobyl meltdown.

 

[Gun guru]

That is why Fox news is far better at reporting information then the CNN, NBC and CBS. A lot of people (myself included) get their news by reading it from the internet on multiple websites.

 

[Anonymous-0]

If you don't follow the news you're uninformed.
If you do follow the news you're misinformed. I
believe it was Mark Twain that said this and it
certainly applies to today's media.

Unimog

 

[730 virgil]

i thought as citizens of U.S.A. we were have choice of we vote for.
the media saw to it some candidates were overlooked and we as voters heard very little about them.

 

[scooter01922]

Just last week the 10 oclock news ran a "special investigation" on how some local police depts sell their used service weapons to a LICENSED arms dealer so that it costs them less for upgrading to new guns. Whats wrong with that you ask....According to the news this could place these "high powered weapons" in the hands of criminals. High powered ??? you have got to be kidding me. Anyone dealt with trying to get a gun legally in Massachusetts??? It's no fun, so damn much red tape. It would be rather tough to get one of these guns from a licensed arms dealer if your a criminal. They cited some case on the west coast in the 80's where a former police pistol was found on a criminal. Woo Hoo so one gun that happened to have been owned by a cop made it to a criminal. Gee i feel so much safer knowing that as a result of the story some of the departments will now be paying to have the weapons destroyed. More of my taxes hard at work. Pay to buy guns, pay to destroy guns. Somehow this just seems wrong.