This just in…
The news lies, folks! I know this sounds like crazy talk eh? Well, it isn’t. I grew up watching the Today show with now, recluse Matt Lauer and deceptive Katie Couric. I watched this show before watching Garfield and Friends (my favorite cartoon). I enjoyed the news as a young boy. I’d enjoy munching on an Eggo waffle with peanut butter, and taking in the world’s events. When I arrived in my first class of the day we’d discuss current events. Lauer and Couric would help me to be the most “informed” first grader in the room. I loved, and still love current events. I still draw cartoons, ride my bike and read up… so not much has changed.
What has changed though? I have gotten older. I’ve lived longer, had more experience and now am able to synthesize a better understanding. Fake News has always been. Now, it has been defined in a term. The fact of the matter is Fake News has always been around. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I watched the Today Show like a child. When I became a man, I gave up Fake News, and starting investigating truth.
Mark Twain once said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”
Throughout history there have been major debacles with news. Human beings report the news to the public. To err is human. Sometimes the error is to propagandize. Sometimes it is sheer incompetence.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us into the Vietnam War was falsely reported. Vietnam led to the death of around 60,000 U.S. soldiers. Fake News can have dire consequences.
We never did find the weapons of mass destruction that got us into the Iraq War. Maybe, they did get smuggled out in underground tunnels to Saudi Arabia. Well, we were certainly told it happened.
Katie Couric and her team had manipulated editing during a filmed gun debate. It was proven that the editing was a clear manipulation. It was done to dismiss any legitimate points one could make about gun rights. Katie was able to beat a defamation lawsuit concerning this case, but the truth is that the editing was not honest.
CNN lies, bends the truth and skews reality daily. News hits us at a twenty-four seven bombardment. I realize that sometimes folks screw up without bad intention. It still leaves me not trusting everything that talking heads tell me.
I seek out voices that cite data. I look to numbers, studies, polls and my senses. I read a variety of papers. I usually start with the New York Times and then jump right into Breitbart. Yes, how crazy is that? I read two wildly different publications. I read Politico, National Review and BBC as well.
There isn’t one voice out there to trust. Some are more trust worthy than others. CNN is probably at the bottom of my list. I still look at them from time to time though. There is a saying, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”.
You just read my little blog piece, and got news from yet another source. So, you are the solution. Help out your fellow human beings to reduce the error in their information. A healthy diet is important for the body to run properly. We need a wide array of vitamins and minerals. A healthy diet of information is important for the mind to function properly. You can’t just guzzle down sugary Fake News, and expect to be healthy. Eat an apple a day, and keep those lying talking heads away!