Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

Ariana said:
I wish it was that simple. Sadly, a lot of people want to read bullshit in newspapers. It's like global intellect reached a peak at some point and remained constant, and this is what happens when the world population grows. There's a reason why the The Sun has a daily circulation of 2.4 million, while The Times has 390,000, for example.
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I know :( It's just sad that there are no... normal newspaper outlets anymore here. There's one that doesn't have all the stupid celeb rumours, but it also doesn't have anything interesting but bare info. The rest are all in various levels of sensationalism.

Went through most of today's front pages... Most extreme one has "<female singer or actress; dunno> shows her PUSSY". Not what you think though, it's actually some woman with a cat :P But there's my point of sensationalistic (and rude) titles. The... least extreme front page ( :P ) has "<KID> DROWNS IN AGONY!!!!!" with a pic of the kid with full name and all. (Some kids got drunk and their car crashed into the river; one of them was in the trunk and didn't manage to escape and drowned; two more died, three survived including the drunk driver.)
 
Unfortunately, corporations have discovered that most people don't look to the news to challenge their world outlook, but to reinforce it. They schedule their coverage accordingly.
 
LooseCannon said:
Hey, nothing wrong with that. Do you get extra pay for working holidays?
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I get a 'comp day' for working a holiday-- basically a vacation day. Since I don't have a lot of time left this year to use it, I took Wednesday off (yesterday) for working today. Worked out pretty good!!
 
The best thing I heard re: newspapers was that, when a lie is proven, the apology should be printed on the same page(s) as the original story at the same size. That would kill off 99% of newspaper lies immediately.
 
That will never work. Newspapers will just quote anonymous sources or label things as commentaries. You can't call these lies.
 
Ariana said:
I wish it was that simple. Sadly, a lot of people want to read bullshit in newspapers.
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True. Many people say about the biggest "gossip & utter bullshit" magazine in Norway that "noone admits to read it, but everyone does". Two of the main newspapers like to compete with this magazine in terms of rubbish news like "friend of Crown Prince tells about his DARK PAST!" or "These food items KILL YOU". Or "Now the ticks are EXTRA DANGEROUS".
 
These laws exist where individuals or organisations are defamed. They're the laws of libel. But they tend to be civil, not criminal law. People win payouts and prominent retractions all the time. And you have an additional problem with stronger state press regulation - those in control can suppress news they simply don't like. The very best thing is to walk away from the trivia and gossip, and support any publications that actually present the most unbiased news.

Wingman is right, unfortunately, a lot of people do read these publications for entertainment, not be kept informed about current affairs.

Mckindog is also right - the marketing strategy of the big national papers in particular (although many others too) is to provide evidence to back up their readers' prejudices and paranoia, and thus encourage them to keep buying the publication.
 
Yeah, but you have to be a complete moron to publish something in a way that can get you in court. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I just think there are plenty of ways to present your "news" in a form that would keep you safe but still sell your paper.
 
I think some of them do it anyway just to push the boundaries (again, it's usually the celebrity gossip stuff). From what I've seen, it's the smaller, less wealthy and more honest publications that get the bigger kicking, usually because they can't afford to defend anything and aren't prepared to bend the rules, they just fall in line if someone starts threatening them. Actually genuine news of public concern gets suppressed.

The lies that bother me most are the misrepresentations and twisted statistics with a political agenda behind them. I can't see additional laws making any difference there, because they tend to favour the current political climate.
 
I find the amount of mistrust for the media is unwarranted, at least in my country.
Notwithstanding the obvious shlockmeisters, the vast majority of information presented in news articles is accurate; very little of it deliberately slanted and most journalists approach their jobs with integrity.

The problem is the line between journalism and entertainment and commentary is blurred so often it becomes difficult for the casual observer to determine which is which.
 
Well. It's hard to trust media that need more than 20 years to apologize for this:

Hillsborough_disaster_Sun.jpg
 
Ariana said:
Yeah, but you have to be a complete moron to publish something in a way that can get you in court. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I just think there are plenty of ways to present your "news" in a form that would keep you safe but still sell your paper.
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Most celebrities here have no shame, so they never really sue the newspapers no matter what they print about them. "I'm in the newspapers, doesn't matter for what."

Anyway, I was just pissed at the way the article was written about the kids that died. They just HAD to bring it up that one of the kids who survived is the son of a famous TV presenter, and then they had to mention that in every single article. One of the kids' funeral was held today, and they had to mention that a son of a stupid Serbian bitch singer and Arkan was there. Also the rude and inconsiderate titles like "KID DROWNS IN AGONY: HORROR DEATH IN THE TRUNK" piss me off. Why are people such idiots :facepalm:
 
Everybody knows her here. Even if you don't like that type of music, everyone knows who she is. ::) And whose wife she was, of course.
 
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