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What's your honest opinion of BBC news and CNN?

Heartlander · 80-89, M Best Comment
I appreciate the international BBC news that comes via our local (US) PBS station. I don't think I ever watch CNN, nor much the alphabet soup news from the US. It all seems to be pushing agendas. What they call "Breaking News" isn't very "breaking", really. It looks more like the news organizations are just throwing political jell-o against the wall to see if it will stick.

Newspapers are as bad. Our big city newspaper, which was once an empire with two daily deliveries, has shrunk so much that our weekly church bulletin is sometimes larger. Occasionally they have a problem with deliveries and it's not until they skip 3 or 4 days before a neighbor asks: "did you get the newspaper yesterday and today?"

You'd think a metro area of 2+ million would generate plenty of news every day to still feed two dailies. Throw in another million+ for all the big towns within a 50 mile radius?
Heartlander · 80-89, M
@HerKing Yes, I understand. But to go to the Newspaper websites they are mostly links to the alphabet-soup "breaking news" stories. What's missing is the attachment to the local people and what's important to them. The newspapers feed their agendas rather than their communities needs for inner-connecting.

What was once a 10+ page classified section of our local newspaper should have morphed into an even larger, lower priced and more fluid version on the newspaper's internet site. Likewise for sports, neighborhoods sections, etc.

Declining industries don't usually fix themselves. Like passenger rail service, or bus service, they just slowly evaporate.
HerKing · 61-69, M
@Heartlander I briefly worked in the mailroom of a newspaper as a supervisor. You may know already but the mailroom is the area that has the snakes of newspapers running from the press to the stackers (and other machines) that count and stack the copies that will be loaded onto vans to go to the stores etc.

90% of nearly every paper (and there were about 50-60 different titles over the week going to various places all over the country) was advertising. The 'news' was minimal, and usually made to look more by spreading it between the pages and pages of ads for car dealers, more car dealers, property sales, various things of worth...and then of course the 'informercials' The article dressed up as a piece of reporting on the next great thing but is really an ad.

As I said, it's all because of money or the thinly spread availability of it. No money, no paying reporters, no reporters, no-one to cover what is important to you.

I've also been a freelance photographer for a newspaper and on that gig I two or three times did the 'reporting' as well as take photos. And no doubt I made mistakes in spelling people's names incorrectly or getting a detail wrong; Not malicious or nefarious, just the pressure of time.
Heartlander · 80-89, M
@HerKing Sounds like exciting episodes of your life.

In one my previous lives I worked for a data processing service that did the invoicing for a news syndicate so I got to see how much newspapers paid for some of the bits and pieces that went to make up their newspapers.

I understand a little about the money on the other end. Like what newspapers charge for advertising and how it impacts the future of the publication.

A great benefit of the internet is the ability to correct errors. Much more difficult after printing 200,000 newspapers :)

Graylight · 51-55, F
CNN, like any other American news outlet, has become a largely political network, barely covering news at all anymore. It's largely conjecture, speculation and "expert" analysis. But in the age of 24 hour instant information, that's to be expected.

I find the BBC to be much more neutral and newsworthy, covering topics that range from human interest to geopolitical events in countries that aren't America.
SW-User
They are simply Orwell's 1984 media... By other names.

They are not there to inform with neutrality and full honesty as it is not a right of the masses.


They are businesses who will willingly use propaganda, rhetoric, spin, sensationalism, omission and other tactics to further the agendas of those who control them.

Their goals under the guise of "pure information" is often to evoke and provoke emotional responses either positive or negative in their audiences for or against individuals, groups and entire nations.


Fake news is as old as news itself.

They are as likely to create news as report it.

Propaganda works best in those who believe it does not exist in their media.
HerKing · 61-69, M
@SW-User [quote]They are simply Orwell's 1984 media... By other names.
[/quote]


Oh the irony!!!

[quote]Propaganda works best in those who believe it does not exist in their media.[/quote]


http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398606-trump-what-youre-seeing-in-the-news-is-not-whats-happening-inbox-x
ZenKitzune · F
it's their business to make us believe the world is a terrible scary place..how can anyone trust that?
SW-User
@ZenKitzune XD good point
HerKing · 61-69, M
@ZenKitzune Can you show your workings on that? I accept that they broadcast bad news, and there is an American media mantra 'If it bleeds it leads'..Films have been made about it! But remember CNN like all US media outlets (yep even Fox) are driven by advertising revenue, the BBC in the UK isn't. On any metric the BBC is incredibly good value for money considering the output it manages to do under financial constraints imposed on it.

And because it isn't beholden to advertising, it doesn't have to be cautious about digging into stories that certain advertisers might not want looking at. Is it perfect? Far from it, and even those who work there will tell you that, but overall its integrity is pretty solid.
Burnley123 · 41-45, M
Bbc news has a Conservative bias within its domestic political coverage.
SW-User
Why those two, in particular?
SW-User
@SW-User i will take that into account next time thank you sir
Graylight · 51-55, F
@SW-User it would have been 'fair and balanced.'
SW-User
@Graylight thank you for pointing that out
IWasCallingYaLarry · 26-30, M
I don't trust either of them. Fake news central. I don't trust any news channel. I only trust reliable YouTubers who report the news every day like Phillip DeFranco, MundaneMatt, and others like them.
SW-User
Both are fake. CNN is worse

They'll attack trump about anything and whenever happens in the world, takes them a day to load reports..that's how bad they are.
HerKing · 61-69, M
@SW-User [quote]They'll attack trump about anything and whenever happens in the world, takes them a day to load reports..that's how bad they are.[/quote]

Reporting on Trump isn't attacking him. Maybe he should stop tweeting his bullshit if he doesn't want anyone to report it...You know don't you hs tweets are archived as presidential historical worth (Yep even the ones insulting US allies and praising Putin)..

And just because Trump says 'Don't believe what you see or hear' doesn't (yet) make it law.
HerKing · 61-69, M
They're two entirely separate organisations... What is your opinion of Beethoven and Chopin?
hippyjoe1955 · 61-69, M
extreme leftist propaganda/fake news.
HerKing · 61-69, M
@hippyjoe1955 AKA. They report on Trump about things he doesn't like or take him to task...
hippyjoe1955 · 61-69, M
@HerKing If you say so. Must be nice to be as ill informed as you seem to want to be. I choose to source my information from many sources across the political spectrum.
HerKing · 61-69, M
@hippyjoe1955 But dismiss the BBC? They've only been going longer than anyone else on the planet and won countless awards for their reporting.. Jeeze you're fucked.
I like British accents . I take any news from anywhere with a salt shaker
SW-User
BBC is okay. But CNN and other American news stations are always biased and agenda happy.
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Miram · 31-35, F
I like the documentaries.
MenzernaSF4000 · 36-40, M
I find BBC still bit better than CNN
MarkPaul · 26-30, M
I like them both.
caccoon · 36-40
That I don't a single shit about either of them.

 
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