Are the cable news networks telling you the truth. That's a valid question, because they are supposed to be doing exactly that. Unfortunately, none of them do it all the time. Their greatest failing is in letting the pundits they have on say anything they want -- and they don't challenge them when they tell obvious lies.
The chart above is from PunditFact (last updated in January). It shows how many pundit statements, statements that go unchallenged, on the three cable news networks are true or false. Sadly, none of the three do an exceptional jobs of delivering the truth to their viewers.
CNN does the best job -- with 53% truth and 26% false statements. On MSNBC, the ration is 34% to 41% -- and on Fox, the ratio is 22% to 58%. If you count the Half-truths as falsehoods (which they really are), then the false statements climb to -- CNN (47%), MSNBC (65%), and Fox (77%). That's abysmal.
How are we supposed to sustain a democracy when the purveyors of news allow so many false statements?
These are all corporations and the new normal is to get ratings (which boost the bottom line) even if that requires "inaccurate" reporting methods. The only way to know if something reported is true anymore is to see it with your own eyes or rely on "other" corporations that analyze these reports, like PunditFact or FactCheck.org. I have to wonder when the fact checkers get bought off by those being checked. I have become wary of everything!
ReplyDeletewhere's Walter Cronkrite when we really need him.
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