ARE WE GIVEN ALL OF THE FACTS IN “NEWS” ARTICLES?

Is it a “fact” when an article tells us, “DeSantis (Republican Governor of Florida) signs ‘controversial’ Florida election law with 2022 looming” as the headline for the Palm Beach Post reads in the on-line coverage published on May 5 @ 5:18pm and updated on May 6 @ 11:16am?

It is a fact, I assume, none of the liberal fact checkers have a problem with. I contend, however, that it is a misleading fact.

Is there anything in our culture that is not disagreed with by a certain segment of the population? I am sure a percentage of people who read this blog will have a problem with at least some of what I have to say. Ah, a new controversy is born!

The on-line coverage of Maxine Walter’s call for her supporters to harass Trump cabinet members by CNN carried a headline reading, “Maxine Waters encourages supporters to harass Trump administration officials.” (Updated June 25, 2018 @ 2:02pm) I compare the CNN headline to the Palm Beach Post headline and can’t help but feel they both are leading the reader towards the liberal viewpoint- do you disagree?

I see “controversial” and then I see “encourages.” Controversial is referring to a Republican signing a law that was created and passed following the rules of the state. The headline with the word encourages featured refers to an official (Democrat) elected to represent ALL OF THE PEOPLE in her district calling on those who support her to harass government officials she does not agree with despite the fact that many people she represents might.

I don’t care what the politics of the situation might be. I do not believe that it is acceptable to harass public officials in their private lives for the same reason I am against members of the press stalking celebrities to get “That Picture” of them in a compromising situation.

I am concerned with the, what I consider biased, coverage any legislation presented by conservative representatives receives from the main stream media. I guess I should change that to I am upset by the main stream media’s claimed “news” coverage of politics and social issues that is no more than public relation proclamations for the Democrats.

I fondly look back to the day when news articles were limited to news and opinion pieces were presented only on the editorial page. 

I wish the main stream media news-people had enough faith in the cause they support to present all of the facts honestly. I theorize that if they did the number of followers they had would increase tremendously. I would really like to “Return to those thrilling days of yesteryear” (Stolen from The Lone Ranger introduction) and hear or read news pieces that actually are written as news pieces, you know, with all of the facts. 

As recently as the 2020 election cycle it was evident, to me, that the main stream media was not interested in giving the full story and “allowing” those who depend on them for the news to make their own decisions. Most articles completely omitted any mention regarding crowd size. When conservatives started pointing this out in news coverage and social media main stream media coverage started stressing “social distancing” and “the danger’s of large crowds.” 

I did a Google search of ” Trump crowds compared to Biden crowds in the 2020 campaign.” The results were mostly “Fact Check” replies explaining how the much larger crowds for Trump are just a matter of the candidates preference of styles. I was impressed that this opinion was stated better than any paid Public Relations firm would have done. 

I did manage to locate a couple of photographs that, I think, explain my point better than words can.

The top half of the photo is a Trump crowd greeting p The President and the bottom half is a Biden campaign stop. How does the saying go? “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

There are thousands of additional examples I won’t go into here; I’ll just mention a couple.

Coverage of police involved shooting that give “facts” such as the age of the youth who was shot (if they are young) but don’t stress that the child was out during the early morning hours, resisted arrest, was seen carrying a gun that he held until about a second before he was shot and had just committed a felony (Recent Chicago case with a 13 year old). 

They cover the “fact” that the “Unarmed Black man” (Ferguson Mo.) was shot by a police officer but do not stress the fact that he had tried to take the officer’s gun and was coming back towards the officer after injuring Officer Wilson earlier. Little was heard about the FACT that Michael Brown had just committed a strong armed robbery. Have you heard that the “Hands up don’t shoot” claims made by Brown’s associate were debunked by eye witness testimony? If you’re thinking isn’t that same chant still being used in protests and wasn’t it one of the main battle cries of the BLM movement? Yes, but it’s still not true. 

There are a lot more stories to tell but I’ve kept you long enough. I hope to touch on a long list of topics in the future. They won’t all be political, some stories will cover my perception of how times have changed since I was a kid in the 60’s. I hope I will get a chance to document the post covid atmosphere going out without masks. I think stories about how music has changed since the early days of Rock and Roll, my favorite groups were the Beatles and Sha-na-na, but I have seen The Box Tops, The Turtles, Three Dog Night, The Cryin Shames and others in concert. Who are your favorites?

I look forward to sharing this boomer’s thoughts with you on a regular basis. I hope you enjoy hearing what I have to say enough to follow me.

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Thanks for staying to the end.