Media versus reality

Old NFO has a useful blog post showing how the mainstream media present the news, versus what’s really going on.  It’s a good read.  If anyone tells you, “But it was on the news!”, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was either accurate and/or truthful.  Recommended.

The ones that crack me up are the severe weather reports, where a journalist tries to give the impression that he/she’s in a dangerous or catastrophic situation, but the reality is that they’re just pretending.  Two recent examples:

Moral of the story:  if you’re going to fake it, make sure viewers can’t spot the fakery!

Peter

6 comments

  1. Rules 1 and 2:
    1. It doesn't matter what's true, it's what you can get people to believe.
    2. If you control the information flow, you control what people believe.

  2. I deployed to the Hurricane Katrina disaster area. The task force that I was a member of left Florida while hurricane force winds were still blowing on the coast. The only team that left before we did was the Urban Search and Rescue Team. When we arrived in our designated area, it was still raining. We were assigned to the area in Mississippi where the storm made landfall.

    When we arrived, within 2 days the national media was there, claiming that GW was ignoring the disaster, and no one from FEMA was there. We were standing less than 100 feet away, vaccinating people for Tetanus and Diphtheria, as well as handing out baby formula, diapers, food, and water. We were also providing medical care to anyone who needed it.

    The reporter had to reshoot the report, because a guy with a Coke and a sandwich passed by in the background of his shot.

    That deployment is when I stopped watching the MSM. When I came home and tried to tell people the truth about what I saw, I was banned from several online forums for lying about the disaster.

  3. @Divemedic — It’s been years since Katrina, but I would like to thank you on behalf of quite a number of folks on the MS Gulf Coast. Your efforts are not forgotten by the residents. We know the real story of what happened during and after, so the faux news can get stuffed.

    I’m a vet myself and having worked in both disaster preparedness AND public affairs positions, I have an appreciation of disaster (natural or man-made). Having worked national-level PA overseas and dealt with the press (ours and theirs) during the Cold War, I know propaganda when I smell it.

    Again many thanks from many people here on the coast to those who aided us. We haven’t forgotten.

  4. Seriously, people –

    I live in Wilmington, NC – have for many years, now – which is where the dolt in the blue slicker was "out there", doing his faked-up "coverage" during Florence…and yes, we lost power for awhile (which was pretty annoying, really – the cable went out for awhile, too, which was even MORE annoying!…) – but…c'mon –

    we lost some leaves and a couple of kinda-small bushes to the wind – and a neighbor lost a couple of very old, very tall trees…otherwise – not much goin' on, y'know?

    We snorted and chuckled about the "reporter" and his Big Storm Reportage for several weeks, off and on…

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