Wal Mart to lay off 13,000 workers

[Bob]

News is not presented today the way it once was partly because most of it comes through television which is basically an entertainment medium. Consequently, news gets spun according to what you watch and how you, personally interpret it, according to your beliefs when spin is involved.
There has been only one time in my life when I heard the news without some occasional spin. It was when I was stationed in England and listening to the BBC. The newscaster would come on and say, "This is the BBC and here is the news." and read it without comment of any kind. This is also not the case with the BBC nor any other network today, IMO.

someone decided which news was to be read, and which "news" is unworthy of comment. that's 99 percent of spin.

 

[30ashopper]

we are all smart enough? today's quiz....how do you tell if someone is spinning the news?

By getting your information from multiple sources doofus.

 

[Bob]

By getting your information from multiple sources doofus.

stop rubbing your ron paul poster

 

[Minnie]

"There is no such thing as an objective point of view"

Very interesting article on media bias especially the questions for detecting bias.


Critical questions for detecting bias

1. What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position? With what social, political, or professional groups is the speaker identified?
2. Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?
3. Who is paying for the message? Where does the message appear? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?
4. What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how were the data gathered, who gathered the data, and are the data being presented fully?
5. How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view? Does the speaker fairly present alternative arguments? Does the speaker ignore obviously conflicting arguments?
6. If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view? Does the speaker ascribe positive motivations to his/her point of view and negative motivations to alternative points of view?

To read more see this link: Media

This is another good article and states what 30ashopper stated, get your news from various sources.

Don’t just accept what you hear on the radio or TV as fact — do some research.
Instead of jumping to a conclusion based on a 10-second sound bite, find the context of what was said. You will not only be more informed, but you will also be able to help inform others and, if we are all more informed, our elected officials are more likely to be accountable for their
actions.

The media needs to be unbiased | Central Michigan Life