Quote:
Originally Posted by ivi0nk3y
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.
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I agree with some of your points but not others. As I said before I'm aware of the media exaggerating (i.e. spinning) to SELL a story (as opposed to advancing an agenda). But saying that all the Western media is linked is where you show your naiveity. At least it is if you are implying that it has some sort of collaborative conscious political agenda. As I said before.... too many people would know about it. To many people that are otherwise in COMPETITION with each other.
With your Israeli soldier example. I'm sorry but as a student who is also stuying International politics (as well as Japanese) and relations who has to keep up to date on such things and has to monitor the media quite often then I have to say that the example is not the impression I get. I often hear of Palestinian people being killed by the Israeli military about as much as I hear about Israeli soldiers dying. In fact I'm quite sympathetic to the Palestinian plight (however I'm not completely on their side) because of media reports (not to mention that we did a case study once on Israel in my International Relations and Politics class, which by the way is where I learnt how the media worked as Paul11 as a graduate who majored in journalism would confirm.).
As for your paycheck comment. Frankly the idea that these non-Western journalists are "selling their consciences" to the Western media is quite far-fetched.