By Haddon Libby
The state of news reporting in America has yet again reached an all-time low thanks to Brian Williams, NBC News anchor and head of their entire news division.
For over ten years, Williams has said that, his “bird” or helicopter was hit by enemy fire while he was in Iraq ‘reporting’ the news. Williams recanted that STORY last week when he said that he ‘CONFLATED’ what happened to a helicopter in front of him with his helicopter. The actual truth was that the helicopter that was hit occurred forty-five minutes before Williams was even in the air.
In looking up the meaning of the word conflate, it means to fuse, confuse or combine. What Williams did was lie. I will prove this by using an analogy that we can all relate to: how many times have you visited someone having surgery at the hospital versus having an operation yourself? It is a bit hard to believe that you might ‘conflate’ a visit with actual surgery.
Williams is not the first ‘journalist’ to lie about the news. In a case that reached the courts, a Fox News affiliate in Florida won a lawsuit by arguing that they did not have a legal obligation to tell the truth in reporting the news. Sadly, many large news organizations in the United States supported Fox in their stance.
Independent watchdog group Politifact watches the three major cable news networks in order to report on their truthfulness. Politifact found that Fox ‘News’ talking heads make truthful or mostly truthful statements only 22% of the time while NBC told the truth 34% of the time. CNN, which has ratings that equate to the population of the Coachella Valley in August, told the truth 57% (moved up to 80% if including ‘half-truths’) of the time.
When it came to outright lies, Fox ‘News’ led by lying 40% followed by NBC at 22% and CNN at 15%. What this means is that NBC is propaganda for the left; Fox is propaganda for the right and; CNN are scratching their collective heads while looking for lost airplanes.
What about CBS? Their retired news anchor, Dan Rather, who was forced into resignation after using forged documents to discredit President George W. Bush only weeks before the presidential elections, came to the support of Williams. Brian WIlliams’ predecessor at NBC, Tom Brokaw, for all intents and purposes did not.
Larry Wilmore of The Nightly Show interviewed Jake Tapper, formerly of ABC News and currently of CNN. Wilmore asked which of Tapper’s two organizations “kept it 70” the best. By ’70’, Wilmore meant was which one told the truth 70% of the time as he knew they did not “keep it 100”. Tapper agreed with Wilmore before giving the nod to his current employer for being more accurate.
Where should those of us who want unbiased, neutral facts a/k/a NEWS go?
It may be dry but PBS and the BBC are the best on television. For the written word from traditional media sources, Reuters and The Independent are also solid choices. Online news sources TheRealNews.com, alternet.com and sott.net each provide unbiased news.
Unfortunately, most of the news that we receive in the United States is about ratings and ad sales. As such, the quality of most of the news that we get rivals the nutritional value found at fast food joints.
Looking deeper, do those with money, power and access benefit from an informed electorate or a populace that tolerates the status quo? By watching news-o-tainment/propaganda, you are helping to erode a free and unbiased press – something critical to a strong and vibrant democracy that represents the will of the people.
