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#41
10-11-2007, 02:57 AM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
It is extremely long but I have had a lot of debates on this forum that illustrate my views. I haven't posted much lately but last year I made a lot of long posts.
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#42
10-11-2007, 08:41 AM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
The realization that:
*TV news is worthless and is about selling commercials *Editorials in NYT's and even WSJ are so factually incorrect their board members should be in jail for libel. *Horizontal integration of industry and media screws lots of news outlets up *blogs are quickly becoming the voice of professionals/experts in the scientific and even military fields. *reporters are either willingly ignorant or horribly incompetent at reporting anything scientific, technological or having to do with violence. *reporters in Reuters, NYT's and the AFP have frequently been caught death and destruction pictures to promote anti-war causes. *Think tanks are more often than not propaganda machines that have no respect for truth *A significant portion of the population cares more about their ideology than whether or not their facts are correct. *Assessment reports (reports written by dozens or even thousands of top experts in a particular field) from mainstream organizations are excellent sources of information. Most people avoid them like the plague though.
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#43
10-11-2007, 09:11 AM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
*TV news is worthless and is about selling commercials [/ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] *reporters are either willingly ignorant or horribly incompetent at reporting anything scientific, technological or having to do with violence. [/ QUOTE ] I think these statements are inconsistent. Reporters are paid to make stories "scientific, technological or having to do with violence" consumable to as many viewers as possible so they will watch and increase revenue. They are very good at that. Based on your post, my guess is that they are not "good" at making the stories fit your individual preferences for news consumption. That doesn't make them "incompetent" at reporting any more that McDonald's is "incompetent" at making hamburgers because I don't like their hamburgers.
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#44
10-11-2007, 09:22 AM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
am i the only one whose parents (as far as i can tell) have never had the slightest interest in politics whatsoever? i mean i have never talked about anything remotely political with my parents, and they definitely don't vote. [/ QUOTE ] I never even knew what political party either of my parents preferred until I decided to ask them. When I was 31.
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#45
10-11-2007, 11:17 AM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] *TV news is worthless and is about selling commercials [/ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] *reporters are either willingly ignorant or horribly incompetent at reporting anything scientific, technological or having to do with violence. [/ QUOTE ] I think these statements are inconsistent. Reporters are paid to make stories "scientific, technological or having to do with violence" consumable to as many viewers as possible so they will watch and increase revenue. They are very good at that. Based on your post, my guess is that they are not "good" at making the stories fit your individual preferences for news consumption. That doesn't make them "incompetent" at reporting any more that McDonald's is "incompetent" at making hamburgers because I don't like their hamburgers. [/ QUOTE ] If you've ever read a story in the news paper about a technical field you're involved in you'd know how horribly, horribly wrong they get things. Reporters do not just make stories consumable. They *distort facts* all the time, even the most basic stuff, most frequently through incompetence. They are quite simply writing about things they don't understand.
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#46
10-11-2007, 12:09 PM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
The realization that: *TV news is worthless and is about selling commercials *Editorials in NYT's and even WSJ are so factually incorrect their board members should be in jail for libel. *Horizontal integration of industry and media screws lots of news outlets up *blogs are quickly becoming the voice of professionals/experts in the scientific and even military fields. *reporters are either willingly ignorant or horribly incompetent at reporting anything scientific, technological or having to do with violence. *reporters in Reuters, NYT's and the AFP have frequently been caught death and destruction pictures to promote anti-war causes. *Think tanks are more often than not propaganda machines that have no respect for truth *A significant portion of the population cares more about their ideology than whether or not their facts are correct. *Assessment reports (reports written by dozens or even thousands of top experts in a particular field) from mainstream organizations are excellent sources of information. Most people avoid them like the plague though. [/ QUOTE ] There's lots of good, not obvious truth in your list. I think reporters are typically extremely lazy and not very curious. Perhaps a product of having to produce so many words on deadline for years.
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#47
10-11-2007, 12:32 PM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
You can find plenty of different media around the world - some good, some bad, some abysmal, some very good. Painting a stereotypical picture have really no value except feeling intellectually superior.
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#48
10-11-2007, 12:37 PM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
If you've ever read a story in the news paper about a technical field you're involved in you'd know how horribly, horribly wrong they get things. [/ QUOTE ] Agreed. Every article I read about pensions is a disaster. [ QUOTE ] Reporters do not just make stories consumable. They *distort facts* all the time, even the most basic stuff, most frequently through incompetence. They are quite simply writing about things they don't understand. [/ QUOTE ] But it is clear that their role is not to understand the material, it is to package the idea into a product for consumption. If the public prefers distortions of fact, that's what they get. Do you think someone like Bill O'Reilly cares if what he says is technically correct? He's being paid to provoke an emotional response that stimulates continued viewing. He's not "incompetent" at that.
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#49
10-11-2007, 12:42 PM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] If you've ever read a story in the news paper about a technical field you're involved in you'd know how horribly, horribly wrong they get things. [/ QUOTE ] Agreed. Every article I read about pensions is a disaster. [ QUOTE ] Reporters do not just make stories consumable. They *distort facts* all the time, even the most basic stuff, most frequently through incompetence. They are quite simply writing about things they don't understand. [/ QUOTE ] But it is clear that their role is not to understand the material, it is to package the idea into a product for consumption. If the public prefers distortions of fact, that's what they get. Do you think someone like Bill O'Reilly cares if what he says is technically correct? He's being paid to provoke an emotional response that stimulates continued viewing. He's not "incompetent" at that. [/ QUOTE ] They're packaging *something*, but it's not "the idea" they're ostensibly talking about in many cases. This is like saying that people who work at the spenda factory are packaging sugar. It might seen superfically like sugar, but it isn't.
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#50
10-11-2007, 12:43 PM
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Re: What has influenced you to your current position in politics.
[ QUOTE ]
The realization that: *TV news is worthless and is about selling commercials *Editorials in NYT's and even WSJ are so factually incorrect their board members should be in jail for libel. *Horizontal integration of industry and media screws lots of news outlets up *blogs are quickly becoming the voice of professionals/experts in the scientific and even military fields. *reporters are either willingly ignorant or horribly incompetent at reporting anything scientific, technological or having to do with violence. *reporters in Reuters, NYT's and the AFP have frequently been caught death and destruction pictures to promote anti-war causes. *Think tanks are more often than not propaganda machines that have no respect for truth *A significant portion of the population cares more about their ideology than whether or not their facts are correct. *Assessment reports (reports written by dozens or even thousands of top experts in a particular field) from mainstream organizations are excellent sources of information. Most people avoid them like the plague though. [/ QUOTE ] and what is your position? what has this taught you? where do you stand?
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