Should news organizations be held responsible for keeping its viewers informed?

Question

http://www.current.org/news/news0319study.shtml

Answer 1

Whoa, another carefully tainted poll. Bet you they will never publish what things viewers were misinformed about. Also bet the method used will not be disclosed. Pollsters outright admit carefully crafting polls to get the result they want.

Answer 2

And again. I see hate towards one particular group. Sheesh...does anyone think for themselves anymore?

ALL reporters should have to tell the exact facts and not throw their opinion into it. No "Is the President funneling YOUR money?" and no "Are Things Really As Bad in Iraq as Some Say?" This is opinionated crap.
The problem is that the news is about entertainment and ratings, just like any other network business. Reporting the actual facts isn't important to any of them (notice that broad generalization).

I would be so much more impressed if someone actually backed up their conservative and liberal propaganda with...oh I don't know a SOURCE??
I mean other than a rag that half the folks in the Free World haven't even heard of?
And I don't tust any "news source" that has the word "opinion" in their article.

Answer 3

No, ideally viewers should be held responsible for keeping themselves informed and recognizing the difference between entertainment and objective news.

Answer 4

for keeping them informed in a biast way..yes. I dont watch news anymore obviously becasue when you compete as a channel, you tend to stick to unimportant details that stand out more than the importance of the story in general. Like the story of the BLACK dudes who entered the home of a WHITE man thus shooting them cold. Now, people stick to a racial story rather than the robbery itself dismissing the fact that any human being would do the same in that same scary situation.
The major stations are also monopolized to be controlled more and more by the government, so you also only hear what they want you to hear and you will never see anything deeply incriminating of the governement itself as other reporters do to their very own countries with corruption. Course they pay with their lives, but thats the kind of stuff I want to hear about.

Answer 5

xialou, you should know better, polls are not taken by folks like you or I walking up to other folks like you or I and asking a straight question, polls are really carefully constructed oral conduits designed for the sole purpose of eliciting a given, predetermined response. Regardless of your political stance you must know that no pollster can be unbiased as they are paid by someone to conduct the poll and also to only find information that backs thier predermined stance. They are not designed to get an actual fact or even a true opinion. And in answer to your question, no, we need less legislation, and more common sense. If we were to pass only one more law I say that it should be that uttering the words "there ought to be a law" results in 30 days in the county jail.

Answer 6

Interesting question! To the extent that their viewership/readership falls away from them, due to their failure to attend to their mandate -- objective reporting of news, rather than propagandist, or yellow, journalism.

A caveat to this concept, however, is that *everything* can be interpreted as propaganda -- that's partly why so many say that one medium or organization is "liberal" or "conservative." The reason is that news is little more than stories about people told to people by people. So, essentially, there's no such thing as true objectivity.

Answer 7

News organizations are not governmental departments. They don't have to report anything they don't want to report. I've always sort of laughed at how people try to turn them into major political targets... if you take the news that seriously, then you don't live in the real world.

Answer 8

Yes, because we're all a bunch of mindless dopes who can't do it ourselves. Come on.
The object of true, responsible journalism is to report news - objectively and adjective-free. Give us the what, when, where. THAT is the responsibility. To me, it ends there.
What you or I do with that is our responsibility.

Answer 9

If anything we need to decrease the restrictions upon the free press and upon free speech not increase them. If you are unable to view numerous sources of info and make up your own mind, then wallow in your own ignorance. Just don't get mad when someone calls you the idiot that you are.

Answer 10

No, individuals should be responsible for keeping themselves informed.