RE: Australian PM announces plan to become top 10 exporter of death, destruction & misery
The headline is hilarious! I was thinking since when did the PM speak so honestly and transparently about these issues... Nice catch buddy.
I love this kind of post. You don't get many of them nowadays, I mean, there definitely is a need for 'alternative media' sources.
What I tend to find is that the media generally presents facts fairly accurately and doesn't mess with the data (hopefully), but its how they interpret and frame the supposed repercussions of this data that is heavily biased and requires a quick sense check for the listener (which you've done nicely in this blog).
Of course nobody is free of bias, and anybody who says so is outright lying, but we can do our best to interpret the facts as objectively as possible.
If we do present ideas that are based on our opinions, it is important to let people know that and admit it, as you've done, mentioning at the end of the post that all the views expressed here are you own.
At the end of the day, every individual needs to do their own research and come up with their own opinion. Nobody is free of bias but what your blog is doing is a step in the right direction.
Thanks for the feedback @chunger. I have been a keen observer (and consumer) of news and journalism for many years now and I believe we are now at a low point. Political partisanship on both sides of the idealogical paradigm is now more overt than ever. Alternative media is important, but that too often falls into the partisanship trap. That's why it's so important to get your information from as many sources as possible and formulate your own opinions from there.
The issue as I see it is not so much presenting facts (although there are many lies and falsehoods circulating in the mainstream media, particularly in regards to the Syrian war, for example), but it is in the selective reporting of certain facts, and the intentional non-reporting of other facts that do not fit the accepted narrative.
I agree 100% that we all have biases and that this will always be a component of any journalistic endeavour.
In case you missed it, you might want to check out my previous post on Media manipulation: How big news is messing with your mind https://steemit.com/news/@atnicholson/media-manipulation-how-big-news-is-messing-with-your-mind.
Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback.
Peace.