That is a significant post. We all generally are so skeptical of the DBM, but then, occasionally, all of us will fall victim to what Rush calls "the bubble." With the revelations that are starting to come out sparked by the Adnan Hajj fauxtogrophy scandal we have to begin to assume that every statement coming out of the DBM is a lie and wait for proof that it isn't, not the other way around.
Right now I'm far more inclined to trust a freeper, once I've experienced their work, or a blogger (many on the right... but even some on the left) to get the facts straight and not outright lie than I am willing to trust one of the "main stream media." We may be witnessing the death of an institution that has been part of our society for several hundred years.
We are on the border between one world and another. There is always great risk in such things.
"Borders are always unchancy places"
(from Wizardry Compiled, by IEEE Fellow Rick Cook
a free ebook download at Baen.COM library)
We all generally are so skeptical of the DBM, but then, occasionally, all of us will fall victim to what Rush calls "the bubble."
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It is really Really hard to train oneself to be skeptical of every thing we read or hear from the "professionals in the 4th estate."
We all can speak to errors in articles with which we have personal knowledge, whether it is technical knowledge, or knowledge of a particular neighborhood or persons, etc. These errors are generally unintentional gaffes by the reporter. But when we are unfamiliar with the news, we accept it at face value, by force of habit. Logic would indicate that similar errors would show up everywhere. This generality does not even address looking for bias and spin, just genuine wrong info.
I have two basic rules for monitoring 'news' these days.
First, I listen for what is Not being reported. That is the information the NYT/WaPo etc do not want Americans to know. Example: they search for whichever economic indicator that is not improving to use in their reporting each day. While the Fed has been raising interest rates to cool the economy, the papers have been selling the idea that we never had any economic recovery in the US.
Second, I read the second to last paragraph of any story in a leftist press for the actual facts. What used to be in paragraph one - the who, what, etc - is now placed at the end, so the reporter or editor cannot be accused of not printing the facts. Check it out. It works every time.
Paragraph one is now used to set the spin. I even saw a headline start with the word "But" the other day.
End of my rant. LOL!