Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Rant!
Brian Williams of NBC News recently has come under fire for lying about a story he has been telling over the past decade. He had claimed that he was in a helicopter that was hit by an RPG in Iraq. This did not actually happen to him. He only admitted it once those who were there started telling the real story. This represents an all too common theme in the media. The media has become more entertainment than news. The news often takes something and then exaggerates the story so that it is more entertaining. This happened when Ebola entered the United States. Most doctors said that it should not much if not at all. The media ignored this for the most part. They had their Ebola watch and put fear into people. Now others in the media are getting on their high horse against Brian Williams. I do not think what he did was right, but the media can be so much worse than what he did. Countless times, CNN has given false reports as stories are breaking. They do not bother to do strong fact checking. This epidemic in the media does not seem like slowing down.
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I'm curious on why it took almost a decade for the truth to actually come out. Why did it take so long for the people that were actually there to tell the true story of what had actually happened. I feel like these other individuals were actually in on the story too. They probably knew Brian Williams was lying but did not say anything about it for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a lot of people do feel strongly about this topic that news is more entertainment than it is news. I feel the news can not, or does not, go into full detail about actual news stories that are released. I believe it could actually be a good research topic to see how much news is falsified or altered to make for better entertainment. Because just like any tv show, the network and news show itself is in business in order to make money. But does this mean that the news sacrifices the truth and lies to the public in order to make money?
I love Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. He gave a great response! Primarily, I like that he pointed out that the media is pretty much whipped up into schadenfreude (you'll have to look it up!). See it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/02/10/daily-shows-jon-stewart-attempts-rescue-of-brian-williams/
ReplyDeleteIs there anything in the media that you do think is real? I would like to know how often you watch the news. I agree that the media does exaggerate a lot of things and for the most part changes things up to grasp the audiences attention. There isnt anything i disagree with. I would say that there should be research on Ebola and also if the Brian Williams story is true or not for those that dont already know. I feel like he rant is just fine and i am able to give comments on it. I never wanted to rant about this because I dont watch the news. I would have responded the same where I knew the writer or not because I still have the same thoughts on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. the news exaggerates everything. if you did a research paper on this, maybe reference the numerous times when the news does this. During the Boston Marathon bombing, reddit thought they had a suspect, and some news channels actually went with it. It wasnt the actual bomber the news was showing on the tv, but a missing young man who was only missing because he committed suicide. Because of that reporting his family received death threats
ReplyDeleteThere are many problems with the media. I 100 percentage agree with you that the media takes something and exaggerates it because they need to be entertaining, they need to get the high television rating. That is how they make there money, but a lot of the time they go to far. I just read in the newspaper the other day and it said that Brian Williams had been suspended for 6 months without pay. Do you thing that this is a fair punishment for what he did? Do you think that the media is always exaggerating everything they report on? I think that there are a couple of aspects that can be further researched such as why Brian Williams lied about his story or why it took so long for the truth to come out.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! This indirectly ties in with my rant, the media exaggerating and lying to the public. You said when the Ebola epidemic entered the media, several of the opinions of doctors were ignored. It was the same case with the talk show I mentioned about GMOs and aspartame. The media feeds people what they want to hear and it drives me nuts. Just because it will get more views, they scare the life out of people so we can all hear the word "Ebola" thirty times a day. That is definitely a point of agreement for us.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the media always tries to put a twist on things. They want to keep people interested, but they end up exaggerating and lying. Also the media rarely reports on positive things. It is always the negative things that end up being broadcasted. Many things reported cause unnecessary fear.
ReplyDelete