Don't you just hate this stuff

roland · 24 June 2008

Media Watch on ABC present the mis-reporting and plagerisms all the time, but unless you watch shows like Media Watch then often the wrong reporting gets absorbed as being fact without question.

Here is the latest one that I just came across that prompted my post:

The Not-So-Lost Tribe
by Mike Krumboltz
June 23, 2008 06:09:40 PM

Even in an age when cynical sleuths can hyper-analyze stories for truth and accuracy, the occasional hoax still slips through the cracks. Such was the case with a so-called "lost Amazon tribe."

A few months ago, mainstream news outlets (including, ahem, Yahoo!) reported that a photographer had found a lost tribe of warriors near the Brazilian-Peruvian border. Photos of the tribe backed up his claim.

As it turns out, the story is only half true. The men in the photo are members of a tribe, but it certainly ain't "lost." In fact, as the photographer, JosÃ© Carlos Meirelles, recently explained, authorities have known about this particular tribe since 1910. The photographer and the agency that released the pictures wanted to make it seem like they were members of a lost tribe in order to call attention to the dangers the logging industry may have on the group.

The photographer recently came clean, and news outlets, perhaps embarrassed at having been taken for a ride, have been slow to pick up the story. Now, the word is starting to spread and articles in the Buzz are picking up steam. Expect a lot more brutal truth in the coming days.

CAB SAV · 24 June 2008

Couldn't agree more Roland. Never miss the show. It should be shown/discussed at high school level.
In regards to that photo,when it was pictured in our local rag recently, I wrote a letter to the editor and suggested that if "we" keep carrying on as we are, we could well be looking into our future not just the past.

roland · 24 June 2008

It's almost like there is no real journalism going on anymore with our media - just internet harvesting. The "news wires" are already being used as a vehicle for advertising with maunufactured non-factual news items that get disemminated through our media.

The worst used to be doctored photos in our newspapers - it just keeps getting worse

Smurf1976 · 24 June 2008

roland said:
It's almost like there is no real journalism going on anymore with our media - just internet harvesting. The "news wires" are already being used as a vehicle for advertising with maunufactured non-factual news items that get disemminated through our media.

Whenever I've been involved with something and I know the facts for certain, the media either (1) copies the press release word for word without question or (2) totally misrepresents what is actually going on.

It's normally (1) for anything routine and (2) for anything even remotely controversial or political.

Any actual facts and figures etc, hard data, is removed by the media as they say the general public won't understand anything with numbers. The only exception to that is if the figure is a percentage or a cost, and then only if it makes for a sensational headline - either the cost is huge or the percentage is at an extreme that sounds like a problem.

I stopped buying newspapers due to the above. If they can't report something fairly simple in an accurate manner when the facts are basically handed to them then I have no confidence whatsoever that they'll get anything more difficult right.

kenny · 25 June 2008

I'm always concerned that if something is repeated enough in print, pictures and video; it seeps into the mob psyche and takes on a "truth" of its own as more and more people discuss it as if it's true.

Governments and corporations seem to have this down to a fine art.

Cheers,

Kenny

Smurf1976 · 25 June 2008

kenny said:
I'm always concerned that if something is repeated enough in print, pictures and video; it seeps into the mob psyche and takes on a "truth" of its own as more and more people discuss it as if it's true.

Governments and corporations seem to have this down to a fine art.

Cheers,

Kenny

Photos seem to work best. Often they have little if any relevance to the actual issue but they're certainly effective. Films are even better if you can get them onto the news etc.

Also there's a "conditioning" process where an idea is slowly, step by step, brought out into the public arena. You just make sure you seem to be winning the argument on each step before you take the next tiny step. Then, by the time you're ready to announce what it is you're going to do, a lot of people will have been calling for it anyway. At worst, you'll have a lot more supporters and fewer effective opponents than would otherwise have been the case.

Julia · 25 June 2008

Smurf1976 said:
Also there's a "conditioning" process where an idea is slowly, step by step, brought out into the public arena. You just make sure you seem to be winning the argument on each step before you take the next tiny step. Then, by the time you're ready to announce what it is you're going to do, a lot of people will have been calling for it anyway. At worst, you'll have a lot more supporters and fewer effective opponents than would otherwise have been the case.

Governments, both sides, have this as an art form. The Rudd government is presently making us 'feel grateful' for current petrol prices by telling us a carbon trading scheme will push prices up further. So, by comparison,
current prices are dead cheap. Yeah, right.

2020hindsight · 25 June 2008

Smurf1976 said:
Then, by the time you're ready to announce what it is you're going to do, a lot of people will have been calling for it anyway.

Julia said:
Governments, both sides, have this as an art form. The Rudd government is presently making us 'feel grateful' for current petrol prices by telling us a carbon trading scheme will push prices up further. So, by comparison,
current prices are dead cheap. Yeah, right.

questions then
1. Do you think they will add carbon penalty for their own benefit?
2. see 1.

Don't you just hate this stuff

roland

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