I really don’t want this site to become mired in politics. Perhaps ‘mired’ is too strong a word. Let’s put it this way: I’m going to post a link that has political implications. As always, I invite comments. I’m not sure if I want to glorify this with a category. I’ll see how I feel when I’m done.
Two weeks ago I was at Mom & Dad’s just visiting. Dad has a subscription to The Economist and I usually glance at the back issues laying around. Dad subscribed to Newsweek for many years and sometime in the last ten years or so switched to The Economist. I know I asked him why but I don’t remember now. It doesn’t matter.
I remember feeling that The Economist was generally more conservative than Newsweek which surprised me since Dad has been a reliable liberal for his whole life. I haven’t really done a careful comparison (nor am I going to).
One of my hobby horses is that the Main Stream Media (MSM) is basically quite conservative. In the inimitable phrase of Eric Alterman, alson known as the So-Called Liberal Media (SCLM). Interested readers can do their own homework. Eric Alterman probably has a book but I read him in his occasional column in The Nation. (Thank you Teresa for the gift subscription you have maintained for many years!)
Anyway, the September 10th issue has a cover with the headline, ‘Art of the Lie, Post-truth politics in the age of social media.’ One of the ideas I keep coming back to in the political debates I’ve had in the last few years is trying to get all parties to agree on what the facts are. I always thought it was interesting that even those who denigrate the government rely on government statistics to make a point.
I’ll stop now. I found this article worthwhile. Perhaps it is because it confirms my own biases. I invite you to check it out.
I can’t let this go without a shout out to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). They put out a weekly email with examples of the MSM playing fast and loose with facts. http://fair.org/