When Liberals Scream About Freedom of Speech for News Reporters. . . .Do They CARE if it's TRUTHFUL or not ?

Question

My last question, exemplified what seems to be a problem within the Liberal ranks . Liberals stated that freedom of speech was ultimately the most important issue, without regard for the 'veracity' or lack thereof, of the reporter reporting the news or it's content .

Have liberals gone sooooooo far, that they'll support anything that's anti-troops, regardless of whether it's TRUE or NOT ?

EDIT* - An NBC reporter, called OUR troops paid 'mercenaries', who fight for the money and not because they're patriotic . The reporter, Bill Arkin, also stated that our troops receive 'OBSCENE AMENITIES' !!! Oh really, so I guess they're living in CLUB MED conditions huh .

Answer 1

The problem is there really is no actual reporting of events by the media in general, especially the print media. Unfortunately, the media is dominated by the liberal viewpoint, so they twist facts, omit information, and selectively quote sources to support their viewpoint. With the exception of The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, and The National Review, which are very conservative publications, nearly all other newspapers and magazines have a heavy liberal bias. However, if you read The Washington Time, Weekly Standard, and The National Review you will find a similar slant towards the right. If you read both you will get most of the facts of each event, each spun in a particular light depending on the source, and you can make up your own mind about which version is the most correct. Personally, in the past couple of months, I can barely stomach reading the New York times, The Baltimore Sun, or the Washington Post, their slant seems to have gotten even worse. They appear to attribute November's Democratic victory to their political spin doctoring, and they may be correct. They now have their eyes collectively fixed on winning the Whitehouse for the Democrats in two years.

Despite all of the bashing Fox News gets from liberals, they are actually fairly moderate. All of the other TV news sources report the extreme liberal viewpoint.

And tangerine you have made a statement with absolutely no supporting documentation or links about this supposed study and who conducted it. If this study does in fact exist, first of all, Universities are notoriously liberal I am sure they mindfully worded each question to ensure they would receive the answers they would except a person to state who did not watch the liberal slanted viewpoint presents by non Fox News stations.

Unless I can see all of the details about the results, and metadata about the exact questions asked and the order of questions asked, I would not accept any "study" as being valid.

To quote Mark Twain, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."

I have offered this challenge to liberals several times on Yahoo Answers and to date none have taken me up on it. I have done this and confirmed it for myself. For one week, watch Fox News for 3 hours a day, and every time you see a conservative pundit, place a mark in a conservative column and every time you see a liberal speaker place a mark in a liberal column. At the end of the week, if you are honest about how you mark each person, you will see that the columns will be nearly equal. If you do the same for CNN you will see the numbers heavily favor liberal pundits.

Liberal hate Fox News simply because they are not liberal.

Answer 2

Just as much as Republicans do. Is your biggest worry really about the 1st amendment (which btw, is not being degraded in any way by what you've stated from the Liberal side - check the constitution. Why do you think we have to allow KKK and the like to speak in public forums?) When considering what our troops are fighting against and for right now?!!?

It's a little irresponsible to ask if liberals (people nonetheless) care if news is truthful. Of course they do, we all do. But the media hasn't been honest and truthful for as long as I've been around and there's not much we can do about that other than educate ourselves. The media just regurges stories - it's your responsibility (and this is the media's fault) to find facts and sum up your own opinion on something, if you care enough about the given subject to.

You DO NOT want the government controlling the media - no matter what party is in charge.

Answer 3

I don't think you can limit this to liberals. Do you remember when O'Reilly messed up his understanding of history recently on his show and ended up inadvertendly blaming the U.S. for something that was in fact comitted by our enemies during World War II? Freedom of Speech is indeed a cornerstone of what makes America a democracy, and is guaranteed in the Constitution. Whether you are a liberal or conservative, you must use this Freedom of Speech RESPONSIBLY. That goes for news reporters and also for everyone else. If news reporters do have a political agenda, it is up to the discerning viewer to figure this out on their own (while they shouldn't have an agenda, it is becoming more and more popular for "news reporters" to cite their opinions-just look at Lou Dobbs, or Sean Hannity, or Keith Olbermann). Does this make it right? No. Yet, the reasoning given by these opinion-based anchors for inserting their opinions is that people are savvy enough to decipher the "news" and thus can better appreciate "perspective" (ie the newscasters' opinion) and be able to tell the two apart. Overall, I say, leave the opinions on news shows to the guests or commentors. The anchors shouldn't be spouting off their opinions, no matter how savvy their public supposedly is. And that goes for people like Dobbs and Hannity equally.

Answer 4

Liberals are for freedom of speech and aside from a few extremists do not want Fox shut down by the government. They problem with Fox is that they portray themselves as a news outlet and present opinion pieces as if they were fact leading the feeble-minded to have a distorted view of reality as well as creating an audience with below average knowledge of the actual facts about cases. Fox News is an extension of the Republican Party and nothing more, they have sued for the right to knowingly lie to advance their cause and should not be considered an actual news outlet. Presenting themselves as such is part of their problem.

Answer 5

I'm a liberal and I dont' "scream about freedom of speech for news reporters" I already know we are not getting the truth from them. Turn on any news channel and it's the same thing on every station. Media moguls control the news and tell us what they want us to know. Are you dense? How is that the fault of liberals?

I think that you are not really a conservative, the conservatives I know are intelligent and well educated. you on the other hand, have no life. Take your generalizations and go away and leave the adults to have an intelligent discussion.

Answer 6

sort of a double standard and a fine line.

no one can express their freedom of speech if someone might be offended based on human rights (often through weak implied connotations, not overt derogatory words.)

the courts decided years ago that freedom of speech does not give you the right ot yell "fire" in a crowded theater.... it is against the law to actively incite a riot..... liberals are just walking the fine line where no real violence is resulting. they are also walking a fine line in regards to slander......

unfortunately, they know the laws they are bending..... you have to be able to prove they know what they are saying is a lie (and most are just reading talking points, so they don't) and you have to prove a significant impact based on the slander..... and with so much of it out there, no single thing they say is having significant impact by itself.

FYI, those on the other political extreme do the same thing, just usually not as blatantly... another reason they won't prosecute is that they would get slapped with suites too.

Answer 7

Most liberals I know are insistent on the truth.

But remember the ACLU took lying to the Supreme Court, along with Corporate "Personhood". Claiming Corporations can lie as protected speech.

Go big Red Go

Answer 8

So I guess it's okay for Fox News to label Mark Foley as a Democrat, to give the Obama being a Muslim lie actual airtime, and to regard this falsehood as fact, for O'Reilly to label everything that Fox News doesn't agree with, as part of some far-left conspiracy.

Have some conservatives gone so far, that they'll support anyone who attacks anyone they don't agree with, regardless of whether it's TRUE or NOT ?

Answer 9

No, they do not care what the truth is. They will report as lead story a lie & find out it is a lie & it is 15 seconds in middle of news. Everyone remembers the lead but not the correction.
As a mother of an Army Officer & Ranger, I do believe they have gone way too far in insulting our military. It has become personal, forgetting that soldiers follow orders unless they know them to be against US standard of conduct (massacres are not allowed). Any other choice will get them court martialed just like in every war that has ever been fought by the US.
Why is it that conservatives blindly follow political leaders & liberals "decide" to follow? I think both sides reason out who most closely follows their beliefs & then both sides sort of blindly follow since no one ask us but one thing. Will you vote for me? & that is both sides.

Answer 10

slander and libel are not protected speech, so your point is moot. If reporters intentionally report false information, they can be sued, since that isn't protected free speech. Liberals know this, and STILL didn't sue FoxNEws for FALSELY reporting Foley to be a democrat, a 'mistake' they made 5 times...