Deconstructing with Della: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
January 23, 2017 |
| Pinocchio |
I am hoping the proliferation of lies, fake news, alternative facts, the post truth concept and now commonplace, "I misspoke excuses" are cause for great concern among the general public. I am not sure it is when I hear 40% of Trump supporters believe him over the New York Times.
Researching lies takes time and in a world where the tweet from the morning is old news by the end of the day, there does not seem to be a huge appetite for fact checking from multiple sources. That may come as people experience the burn and embarrassment of believing false information. I know how it feels to be tricked by photoshopped images or blatant Facebook fakery and I don't like it. And, in my 35 plus years of analyzing media and online stories, I have never seen this level of bullshit before. Are there still people who actually believe the Pope supported Donald Trump?
While I am a fan of social media and subscribe to many non traditional news sources, I still trust in the journalistic integrity of many print publications and select electronic media.
We all the know the plight of traditional media to maintain a good financial model, which has created even more challenges and fewer resources for news outlets. However, since the election of Mr. Trump the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have seen a big jump in online subscriptions. The Journal reported a 300% increase in subscriptions the day after Trump was elected.
My hope is that means more and more people care about accurate and researched news. Media reporting has never been perfect. Inherent biases, erroneous information and plagiarism notwithstanding, I believe we are better served via credible news media versus an opinion piece from a random citizen journalist. Ideally, I want both. Reading many perspectives on big issues help me form my own opinion. I don't trust news media unconditionally but I do know how hard most work to present a balanced story based on their audience and the obvious left or right slant.
Editor-in-chief Gerard Baker of the WSJ told Meet the Press they would not call out a Trump lie. Baker said they would investigate, present both sides and let the readers decide which is correct. In my experience, this is how many media operate. The New York Times takes a different approach and blatantly calls out lies like the "birther" story.
The bottom line is we need to be more discerning consumers of information. Nobody likes to be hoodwinked. Gaslighting, the manipulation of facts to make you question what you believe and your sanity is way too common now. To deconstruct information from any source we need to ask ourselves critical thinking questions. Is this based on credible data and sources? Do alternate outlets or individuals have another perspective? Does this just confirm our own bias? Does that picture or headline match the story? Did I take time to read this all the way through? Is that domain name or source recognizable? Is there a slight misspelling in the source name? Have I looked up the story on Snopes or other fact checking sites?
I hope this is the start of the tipping point for people to go back to paying for more reliable news. Free online sources are great and some Facebook favourites like Dan Rather are excellent but sometimes you get what you pay for. As my old boss would say "pay peanuts, get monkeys".
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