Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger
I remember reading a fascinating report from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) a few years ago. In it, they showed that the Press Releases given out by the Bush II White House were being run as-is by numerous news organizations.
That is, a great many of the "articles" being printed in the newspapers regarding Administration policies and other goings-on in the White House were literally just re-typed White House Press Releases. If I recall correctly, AP was one of the biggest offenders.
I doubt that too much has changed since then.
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Some time back, when the Denver area had two major newspapers, one of them* reprinted a press release I wrote on the front page of the business section, with a little bit of sloppy and IIRC inaccurate filler at the end. Someone even put their byline on it.
Thing is, just about every time I've read or seen a story in the mainstream general-interest media about a topic I knew something about, or an incident I had direct knowledge of, there was something wrong. Sometimes something insignificant, but a lot of the time something really important. So I have great empathy for people who are nerds of things I am not a nerd of when they complain about something in the media.
Also, I don't believe most of what I read or see in the media beyond simple accounting of events, and often not even that.
* If I could confidently remember which one it was, I'd totally call it out, but I am not positive enough about that.