Tired of misleading or flat out LYING news headlines!

[enyawd72]

Has anyone else noticed the disturbing trend of false and/or misleading news headlines anymore?
They are EVERYWHERE. MSN, AOL, Windstream are really bad in particular.

This morning I wake up to a headline of "21 Missing Police Officers Found Killed" accompanied by a photo of clearly AMERICAN officers and a police car in the foreground.

I click on the article, and it's about Pakistani tribal police! How is that not irresponsible journalism?

Here is the photo that had the headline across it, and under it, who was ACTUALLY killed.

[Nostalgiabuff]

the news media is so desparate to get ratings that they stoop to new lows all the time. it does not surprise me at all anymore

[wayne foundation 07]

They always and only go for the "shock effect". Tragedy and drama sells, and people buy it buy the cart fulls.

[MegoSteve]

I don't think it's a shock effect. I think it's laziness. News sites, particularly ones that don't do their own reporting and just aggregate news stories from other sources, often use generic stock photography with their news items. I seriously doubt it's an intention of stirring up shock value, because that would take effort.

[theantiquetiger]

Or just covering what they want to push their agenda?

How many here knew there was a theater shooting last week in Texas that was stopped by an off duty officer with her personal handgun? It was not covered by any news but local.

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsde...uard-steps-in/

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I think good ol' George sums it all up pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRgweL12Uc

Don C.

[kingdom warrior]

Hmmmm....

I think good ol' George sums it all up pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRgweL12Uc

Don C.

George was the man said it like it was.....still rings true today.....

[Brazoo]

I'm with you. It's garbage.

[alex]

They always and only go for the "shock effect". Tragedy and drama sells, and people buy it buy the cart fulls.

Yeah and they never finish the story off, its all shock and scandal at first, and then U never hear what happens two months down the line, no follow on.

[YoungOnce]

Of course not Antique Tiger... that would not help them push their ideology.

I am no NRA nut, and have no reason to ride their horse... but it's funny how these Hollywood actors and VIPs have come out so loudly against that portion of the problem and have remained silent on the other parts of the problem, like kids buying their ultra-violent video games, movies and music.

Not to get on a soapbox, but, did we have people going into schools and movie theatres 40 years ago shooting innocents? We had guns back then too!

[MIB41]

One of my new year's resolutions is to stay away from news sites. Things like the Drudge Report sensationalize every drop of negativity they can dig their hands and feet into. For 2013, I'm just going to control what I can do on my end, so I'm going to quit reading that online crap. I have enough informed people around me who will tell me if something is going down.

[torgospizza]

One thing I've noticed is that I've had to go to news sources outside the country to get decent news seemingly devoid of bias one way or the other. Reuters blows away anything we have here in the States, IMO. It's as if they understand journalistic ethics, as opposed to selling a worldview. Recently, I was reading an article on Pravda, and it blew me away how much I was agreeing with the tone and perspective of the article. This is Pravda we're talking about. It's like the world's been turned upside-down. If something's going on in, say, Egypt, it pays to at least see what's going on in Middle-Eastern news sources. Not to give an exact example (so it won't become a political discussion), but I've seen them report facts when the Western press was reporting utter fiction. We need reporters, not shills.

[ctc]

>I've had to go to news sources outside the country to get decent news seemingly devoid of bias one way or the other

Yeah.... we get the CBC and the BBC here, and they're both pretty good. The problem is; news requires viewers to succeed, and in the US it's become okay to flavourize the news so's to cater to a specific audience. So you can get it with a left or right bend, from the perspective of a sports fan, nerd, science buff.... anything you want. No that this is ENTIRELY new.... local news would have a.... well.... LOCAL flavour, and it's always held that "if it bleeds, it leads" 'cos folks have always (at least as long as there was news) loved their mayhem, violence and "GASP! Look at how bad things are!"

Like any form of entertainment, the news placates. That's why I think you've REALLY got to be careful of seeing hidden agendas in what's presented: they're not forwarding any sort of ideal, exactly the opposite; they're trying to give the public EXACTLY what they think it wants. Hence the local cop pic for this article; come in and say "A zillion cops in Pakistan murdered!!!" and nobody will care. Give it some tenuous local connection (such as showing easily recognizable N. American police) and like George said, suddenly I'm interested. Even the news stations who seem to push a political perspective do so only because that's what they think their audience prefers. Nobody's gonna listen to one of these political blowhards and change their mind on ANY issue, but it's refreshing to see "the REAL news for a change!" when watching someone spouting off about stuff you already believe.

My favourite bait and swith that they've been doing forever is th old "the common, everyday product you probably have in your home right now, THAT CAN KILL YOU! Tonight, at 11."

>did we have people going into schools and movie theatres 40 years ago shooting innocents

Yup. Off the top of my head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yteMugRAc0

Based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_don%27t_like_mondays

Don C.