Does everybody believe what they see on TV, especially the news??

Answer 1

Sure, much of what we see and hear has some fact to it. What you have to watch for are the unnecessary editorials that come along with the story. Each news agency Fox, NBC, BBC, etc, etc., tells the story with their own agenda. Objectivity is not a big agenda item for the media.

Fox likes to show the Marines helping out the Iraqis and decries the stories of Iraqi families raped, murdered, burned, etc. by boys from the American Heartland. Meanwhile CBS might show stories of the latest IED to go off in a sea of IED's. Then the BBC shows the story of the Iraqi family and the allegations leveled against the US Marines. Then Al-Jazeera shows the burned bodies to incite the Muslim World.

So you probably see true events, but you don't necessarily get a "real" soundtrack to go with the images. Manufactured news is so much better for the right and left media.

Answer 2

The "news" is manipulated, contrived, and self-serving. Look at how many "news stories" on the evening news stores end with a tag line such as, "You can see the full report about Dick Cheney's cocaine habit on 'Dateline NBC' tonight at 8/7 Central right here on this NBC station."
Doesn't it make you wonder why big corporations suddenly put on 'warm and fuzzy' TV commercials right after they got some bad press? Take Merck for example: the pharmaceutical giant was fined millions for fraudulent activities. Now it runs ads on TV about a poor woman who can't afford her medicine, so Merck delivers it to her door for FREE!
Look at Walter Scott's "Personality on Parade" in the Sunday newspaper supplement. Almost every question about some celebrity "just happens" to coincide with an announcement about that celebrity's new movie or new TV show.
Even Reader's Digest (which is now nothing more than an ad sheet with over 30% advertising) writes articles that are nothing more than editorial endorsements of certain products or companies.
Virtually everything you read today (with the one exception of Consumer's Reports) is written or televised for a specific result or effect.
The sad fact is that almost everybody does, indeed, believe what they see on TV. They believe everything they read in the newspapers, and think the "news" is gospel. The fact is, the fourth estate has let us down. It's no longer the watchdog of America, scrutinizing what the government or big business says. It simply "reports" (verbatim) every news release it receives because that's a lot more profitable than going to the expense of conducting lengthy, costly in-depth investigations. And even their "in depth investigations" are nothing more than Milquetoast renditions of the government propaganda.
And we Americans just continue to gobble up all that fodder as if it were God's manna from Heaven. We need to get back to the times when there actually was a free press, and when Americans actually weren't brainwashed by the conservative-biased media mouthpieces like Hannity, Coulter, and especially that loudmouth bigot Rush Limbaugh. -RKO-

Answer 3

Although we do seem to trust the news people on TV (and hence the news they report), there's always that ounce of skepticism that we maintain in the back of our minds; after all, bias and bad information plagues a lot of the news we consume. If we did trust all the news, then clearly we'd be a brainwashed society...

Answer 4

Never believe anything 100%, because things rarely are 100% true, even if the ones telling this might even believe it's 100% themselves.

The degree of credibility depends very much on which source you are getting your news from. For example, if you are getting your news from public television, or other sources of info where there are no obvious commercial or political interests, and it is a source of info that can be easily scrutinized, so as an international audience, it will be much more credible than, let's say FOX News channel in the USA. The latter has both commercial and strong political interests and ties.

But keep in mind that we all depend on external sources of info to know the truth. Those who distrust all media and think they know better, or worse, they speak from personal experience, is worse. Personal experience only shows people a tiny slice of reality, namely the perspective of the individual. This is not as reliable at all, as the larger picture and statistics would be. However, again, the degree of reliablilty depends on the source. To judge this, requires a lot of common sense and plenty of understanding of the world already. You should try and compare with other sources of info, especially international sources. And if information crtiticizes another party, then you should also study the reports given by this other party, otherwise you can be sure that you are getting biased one sided info.

I could give plenty of examples of such obvious lies and manipulation.

Have you ever heard of the US "office of strategic influence" ?
One of their main mission is to manipulate media and news in the world to their own advantage. Then when you have a cousin of Bush being the governor of Floria, where the ballot issue took place, and another one works for Fox news, where Bush was declared winner prematurily (intentionally), and the WMD claims in Iraq were exaggerated intentionally and the war in Iraq was brought like an exciting competition like the superbowl ("Showdown in Iraq!"), it's quite obvious how unreliable they are.
Compare them to international media, and it will become even more obvious how different and weird they are.
Compare that to BBC news, where DESPITE brittain having similar interests and participation in this Iraqi war, the news is quite different and more critical than any mainstream media in the USA. There's reason to assume them more reliable.

Another example of media manipulation, that MIGHT not even be intentional, but which common sense would reveil, is CNN's examples of public opinion on a particular subject. They try to show 'both sides' of the story, but they do this by showing equal number of those who agree and disagree with a particular statement. This gives both sides of the info, but it falsely suggests that those confliction opinions are equally represented by the public. So this is not so much a lie, as it is a lack of information that gives, intentionally or not, a false impression.

The other very very common problem in the media, again sometimes intentionally, sometimes ignorance, is that most people, including journalists, have a difficult time differentiating between CORRELATION and CAUSALITY.
For example, there is a correlation between terrorists in recent years are mostly of muslim nations. And that most criminals in jail in the USA are 'blacks'. This is a correlation, but often this is mistaken or intentionally suggested to be a CAUSALITY, that black people simply are more criminal, or that it's in the nature of islam to motivate terrorism. See, there are other correlations.. most of these black people are also more poor and live in bad neighbourhoods and can not afford education beyond poor state schools. And there are historical reasons for why they on average belong to a lower social class in the USA. And there is a correlation with these muslim countries being rich in oil, that western countries (like USA) depends on very much.
So, there are plenty of other 'correlations' to explain as a 'causality', that will make a lot more sense and be a lot more consistent throughout history. But for this, you need to be aware of these interests and history too.

Answer 5

Not unless I can confirm it through multiple sources. Unfortunately too many in the media have become editorialists rather than actual reporters. They report what is favorable to the agenda they support, and when caught giving false or misleading information, they claim absence of malice, or free speech. This is true of all media both left and right.

Answer 6

I don't think so. TV you probebly get the producers view (and you must not offend investers or advertisers. Newspapers its the Old School Tie so reporters have to submit their copy and the Editors has the last say.

Answer 7

Not everybody. At least not this one. I rarely watch TV and change the channel when the news comes on.

'nuff said?

Answer 8

No Not Really You Never Know What's Real And What Not These Days

Answer 9

No, most people only believe the news they want to believe.

Answer 10

I don't watch the boob-tube anymore but when I did, I believed roughly 90% of the news.