Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin4hire
To Ivionk3y. Yes you are correct that News networks exaggerate the news because at the end of the day they have to sell a story. But for them to outright lie or fabricate events is unlikely for the fact that their reports are almost always reported by other competing networks. With regard to the China-Tibet situation, I'm open to the idea that their could be exaggerations in the way the media reported it, not to mention that there could possibly be much in the way of misreporting (after all most of the sources as I said before where accounts from tourists in the area because of China's unwillingness to let the media in.)
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Noone said anyone
outright tells a lie. I'm going on the assumption that no lies are told. However at the end of the day, the news the media gives isn't always black or white in nature. Therefore the truth can be "spun" to suit an agenda and therefore public opinions changed. The news has two functions. One is to give us facts. The second unwritten function is that each news channel/network will give you the opinion that suits its purposes. It is rare that a person will actually use their own opinion, instead using the one given to them by whatever news medium they get their info from. If all people used their own opinions based on "facts", then Broadsheet newspapers would be much more popular than Tabloids.
Like I said, all the Western media is linked. Its quite evident that stories from country to country differ, so your argument about the Western media not being able to lie isn't exactly airtight. For example, an Israeli soldier dying will be given much more coverage than 10 Palestinian civillians dying. It is the spin at work and denying it will just show naivety.
If they wanted to lie, it would be quite easy for them to. Not everybody is able to travel from one country to the next and compare articles and not everybody can verify the facts.
ps. The fact Reuters may or may not have many non-Western employees is irrelevant. A paycheque goes a long way.