Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Wednesday Rant: Trust in Media or Government?

On this edition I introduce you to my Rants.  On a weekly basis I will Rant about a subject that is bothering me or others that I talk to on a regular basis.

With that, lets Rant!

Since we live in a society that is bombarded with a 24-hour news cycle on television, internet, radio, and print, it is difficult to avoid hearing someone's version of current events.  In fact, this blog is another example of getting information (of some sort).  During the news cycle we hear everything from everyone: pundits, politicians, experts, theologians, intellectuals, and fools.  Particularly with the latter, everyone seems to get an equal opportunity to voice their opinion of what's fact and not fiction. 
So when the President railed against the media in perpetuating falsehoods and exaggerating the truth this weekend at Hampton, he was spot on. However, the President is also part of the spin machine (albeit more legitamately in my opinion). 

Everyone has an agenda these days to influence other people for power, money, or something else that is potentially nefarious or maybe just and good.  The challenging part is deciphering truth and facts from spin and opinion.
I admit to being a CNN Junky and NPR geek.  In my opinion these news organizations are the most balanced in that they expose their audience to a plethora of views.  In the case of NPR, they give you straight up facts - not opinion, and allow you to develop your own perception of reality in this crazy world in which we live.

My question to you is, where do you get your news and information?  What shapes your perception? 

Whether you consider yourself a conservative, a liberal, a lib-con, something in between, or do not choose to brand yourself, I am curious as to how you get your information, and more importantly how it shapes the decisions you make.

On this first Rant of a series of Weekly Rants, I invite you to Rant with me!  Give it to me straight!
And for those of you who get all their news and information from Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, or Fox News, I want to hear from you too. 

At the end of the day...opinion matters.

Cheers!
JB

1 comment:

  1. Hey Man!
    I try to read and view lots of sources to stay informed as to current events. I also agree that propaganda is a mighty tool for swaying the masses and everyone turns on the spin machine from time to time.

    I think that most media outlets lean left. You know something I've noticed? Your local news often actually has some of the most unbiased reporting out there. Perhaps this is due to their limited time slot. They just come on, tell you what happened, and then cut to sports and weather!

    As far as cable news and some other noteworthy news organizations--Relative to where a cross section of America sit, I actually think NPR, and CNN come from a center-left perspective and MSNBC the FAR left. I think Fox News is actually center-right in it's news offerings and obviously right for it's opinion shows (Cavuto, Beck, O'Rielly). Fox gets labeled far right fringe propaganda by pop culture, the president, Hollywood and other news organizations because they lean in the opposite direction from virtually everyone else.

    Words like tolerance and understanding have been hijacked by the far left and now it seems that contrary opinions to pop culture and the status quo are vilified. I like to believe that the Bible, history, precedent and facts shape my perception to answer the question.

    ReplyDelete