Comments on: Journalism and the truth: More complicated than it has ever been

By: Slavon Smartmil

Slavon Smartmil — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:09:08 +0000

not so bad..

By: John Beck

John Beck — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 01:11:06 +0000

I would point out two threads: on the business side, Roone Arledge taking over ABC News (and doing a fine job of it) — but news once and for all becoming a cost and profit center and all too closely connected with sports. And in the public arena, the young Nixonian cohort that came out of Watergate feeling that the press wouldn’t tell the truth and that a great man had been martyred by the press. So destroying press credibility (cowing it into silence) has been a forty year project of the Atwater-Ailes-Rove crowd. And managing news for audience max and profit if possible has been the corporate viewpoint. Under these conditions, journalists became toothless PR umpires between two political lackeys, I mean, operatives, who also have nothing to gain by excessive displays of objectivity.

By: Afonso Duarte Pimenta

Afonso Duarte Pimenta — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:28:29 +0000

You´re article is just a signal of entropia working.

By: Debra Koontz Traverso

Debra Koontz Traverso — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:27:01 +0000

So sorry, but I quit reading this after the first sentence: “In the past, the truth about a social or political event was whatever the newspaper or the TV news said it was.” That’s truth?!*?! I left journalism years ago because I got tired of newspaper editors encouraging me to put a spin – yes, there’s that word – on the facts. I wanted to enjoy this….even agree with it because I too grow tired of unreliable sources, but let’s not kid ourselves….there is HUGE bias from “professional news jouralists” editors, newspapers, TV etc.

By: Rick Willis

Rick Willis — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:50:18 +0000

Unfortunately, the more we segment ourselves by choosing “channels” of information, the less we have to work to find facts from all channels. Most people move toward pleasure and away from pain in day-to-day living.
It is pain to miss deadlines or a scoop because we don’t have the sources or resources to get at the facts, so we meet the deadline (and pleasure) but may not have “all” the truth. It is so much easier to call someone we know will give us or get an answer for us than to exhaustively look to all the sides. As Shirky said, it’s complicated to arrive at “one” truth.

By: shermaneditdesign

shermaneditdesign — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:33:34 +0000

I don’t believe I can accept this assertion: “And economic constraints mean that most outlets are going to choose the one that is the most profitable or the most appealing to advertisers, or that is simply the fastest.”

Also, the key to at least approaching the truth or better, understanding the interrelationships of the various components of an issue or event, will be found by talking to all the “legitimate” sources, but certainly NOT by following the pundits nor following those people without some code of ethics.

By: John Hamer

John Hamer — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:51:45 +0000

Transparency is the new objectivity. Accountability is more vital than ever. Openness to other views is essential. That’s the TAO of Journalism: http://taoofjournalism.org. Embrace it or you’re doomed….

By: slainson

slainson — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:17:26 +0000

Just because someone says something does not make what they said truthful. For a journalist to report what has been said without also checking to see if what has been said is inaccurate makes the situation worse because they give legitimacy to lies. If journalists aren’t going to bother to sift through the BS, then let’s eliminate them and just put microphones everywhere without the filters.

By: Ribeekah Grant

Ribeekah Grant — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:53:04 +0000

This confusion came about by the journalists interspersing the facts with opinions. If the journalists had just stuck to reporting the facts, we would not have reached to this. Your opinion is still your truth. People should have the freedom to formulate their own opinion based on the facts. Facts is really information as it unfolds. Therefore, people would be free to change their truths. The journalists themselves created this ball of confusion of seeking to create truths for the readers.

By: markleiser.phd.law

markleiser.phd.law — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:38:06 +0000

Reblogged this on #Hashtag – Thoughts on Law, Technology, the Internet, and Social Media and commented:
Journalism and the truth: More complicated than it has ever been
When former New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane asked earlier this year whether reporters for the paper should be “truth vigilantes,” the response was immediate and decisive: of course they should, readers said — after all, wasn’t that what journalists were supposed to be doing in the first place? It clearly is, but as Clay Shirky and others participating in a Poynter Institute forum pointed out on Tuesday, that job has gotten infinitely harder as the number of information sources has increased thanks to the web and social media. Checking specific facts may have gotten easier, now that anyone can do it, but is reaching any kind of consensus about the capital T truth even possible any more?