This is a much larger issue than just a media related one. There's a friend I've had for years. He's a physicist. I always ask him questions about physics. I'v

This is a much larger issue than just a media related one. There's a friend I've had for years. He's a physicist. I always ask him questions about physics. I've often referred to him as the smartest guy I know. I have another friend, also a physicist. Less accomplished, but just as smart. Friend 2 hates Friend 1. Calls him an idiot. I generally dismissed it as arrogance or jealously. Then, a few years ago, Friend 1 told me he'd been doing a lot of Python lately. I use Python a lot. Have for 15 years. Over a group dinner, he was explaining a problem he was facing, specifically he was explaining how Python handles dictionaries. It was … very wrong. But he sounded like he REALLY knew what he was talking about. It occurred to me that maybe Friend 2 was right all along. Friend 1 isn't that smart. He seems smart to me because I don't know physics. He's good at saying things that sound right. Maybe they are sometimes. But maybe they aren't sometimes, and it was that "sometimes he's wrong" thing Friend 2 picked up on, just like I picked up on the Python stuff. Media, journalism, etc is likely the same way. 90% of the story can be right, or technically accurate, but if 1 fact is wrong, and you KNOW that fact, it's going to bother you. A lot, and will shade your opinion of everything else.