The 24 hour news cycle on cable and the internet has increased the chance of misinformation being given to the public. Gone are the good old days when people got their news from only city newspapers in the morning or on the ABC,CBS, or NBC evening news. Now there are many sources of news on cable or websites that broadcast day and night, sometimes while the events are happening. In the past, new outlets had less competition to break a story first and more time before dead lines. Reporters had time to find and interview several corroborating eye witnesses. Editors could check for errors and confirm facts before airing the story. Now with the time pressures of 24 hour news, this doesn’t happen as much, if at all.
The line between opinion and fact is blurred like never before. More time is given to “experts” to voice their opinions on why someone said something or on events that have or will happen instead of reporting on the actual events. When these “experts” rattle off statistics, the anchor should ask them where they got their facts. The problem is this doesn’t always happen with only a few minutes for an interview before a commercial. Or the “facts” might be what the interviewer wants to hear so why bother to ask? So many commentators think they know why President Trump says something. They seem to think they can read his mind. If something he says is unclear, why don’t they just ask him what he meant instead of jumping to their own conclusions?
Editing is being used as well to change the meaning of what is done or said on video. For example in the book “The True Story of Fake News” by Mark Dice, he recounts when NBC edited a conversation between George Zimmerman and a 911 operator before George had a confrontation with Trayvon Martin and George fatally shot him. Amid allegations that he was a racist, NBC’s version has Zimmerman telling 911, “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.” But Zimmerman’s full remarks are, “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining, and he’s just walking around, looking about.” Then 911 asks, “OK, and this guy-is he black, white, or Hispanic? Zimmerman then says, “He looks black.” Zimmerman ended up suing NBC for defamation saying they were trying to make him sound like a racist.
Unclarified timelines are also used to mislead. I recently saw a commercial promoting President Trump’s impeachment. A man reminds the viewers that the first responsibility of the President is to protect the American people and that since 13 Russians were recently indicted for meddling in the 2016 Presidential Election, Trump failed in this responsibility and should be impeached. The problem is that Trump wasn’t president when the alleged crimes took place. If anything, Obama should be held accountable since he was at the time.
Misinformation can also mean missing information. Some media outlets just don’t cover stories that might go against their ideas of what’s true or stories that might reflect negatively on their preferred political figures. We need to check out more than one new source to make sure we are getting all of the news that is important to us as citizen’s of America and in a way that is clear, truthful, and complete.
I know that most of us are busy and don’t want to take time to verify that the news we are getting is correct and complete. I just want to watch the news and trust that what I am getting is right. But maybe we can’t do that anymore.