4 ms·
Very little news (other than trivial news) is conclusively proved (or even provable) true or false in a way that all sides would agree on. All this would lead
by dagw 8y ago
Very little news (other than trivial news) is conclusively proved (or even provable) true or false in a way that all sides would agree on. All this would lead would be either just reporting after the fact news (a man was arrested in town X this morning charged with crime Y) or stories (even more) full of hedging language that cannot be conclusively falsifiable ("sources claim...", "some experts believe...", "we're hearing credible rumors that..." etc)
- douglaswlance 8y agoNews is meant to be objective reporting of facts. Modern journalism has been corrupted by opinion and activism. Hedging language would be discouraged by a system that rewards factual reporting.
- dagw 8y agoNews is meant to be objective reporting of facts. I disagree, or at least that's not the only part of news. News should also include presenting the information that is on hand and the situation as it's currently understood even if the details are too murky to raise to the level of "fact". In addition I actually do want analysis from my journalists. I don't want them to just tell me that congress passed the XYZ bill and a link to the text (objective facts), and want them to tell me what effects they believe the bill is likely to have (opinion). I'm even OK with activism by journalists as long as they're up front with what they're doing, keep it separate from their overall reporting, and don't let it get in the way of telling the truth.