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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 12:10 PM and filed under Articles, Civil Rights, Media. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.

2 Responses to “AlterNet: Appalling Spread of False Information Requires Stronger Media Accountability”

1. ben stagg said:

   The complaint seems to be that the media do not always get it right, or that they allow misconceptions to creep into the public mind by a failure to report at all.
   My complaint has more to do with general statements, which when analysed don’t tell you anything useful. For instance, from this very article we are told, “Millions of Americans are now “under water” on their homes — that is, they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.” Now, ‘Millions of…..’ sounds a lot, but why could not the writer have said for instance ‘an estimated five million Americans owe more on their mortgages….’ or whatever the figure happens to be. It could be two million, it could be thirty million. The writer has painted a picture of mass negative equity which may be far from the case.
   Journalists should be more exact in their statements and not so keen on coloring things to suit their own agendas. It is this slack mental habit that has led to many of the oversights that the article critiques

   Posted on 14-Mar-08 at 2:08 am | Permalink
2. ben stagg said:

   The article says, “Millions of Americans are now “under water” on their homes — that is, they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.” That sounds like America is awash with negative equity, but is it? In reality is it two million americans or thity million Americans, and why couldn’t the writer have said “an estimated ….million Americans…”
   That slack mental habit which so often is used to create a picture that suits the writers agenda has to shoulder a good deal of the blame for the very media ommissions that the article critisises.

   Posted on 14-Mar-08 at 2:20 am | Permalink