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[Hylas]

I'm really annoyed. I can't read newspapers anymore because of journalists stupidity. How comes they stick to one kind of news only for a week or two and they can't write about anything else, then one day they change topic and stick to another kind of news and completely forget about anything else, previous topic included? I mean, why for a week or two we have all dogs going crazy and attacking kids and old women, then the next week dogs seem to calm down and we have bullies emerging anywhere and torturing innocents? What is it? Dogs transmitted they madness to them? Or how comes for a week or two we have bottles of water being poisoned anywhere, then the next week no bottle is poisoned anymore but instead we have chicken flu menacing our lives? And the next week we don't know where chicken flu goes because there is some other temporary catastrophe?

I don't know what to think. Is it only a trend of the press around here or is it a general trend? I think newspapers on the internet are confirming it is general, but if so, I don't know what to think. Why one would want to read the news everyday? It would be enough to read them now and then

I forgot to say with TV news is the same thing!

[Faile]

You should read the letters page in my local paper. It's full of crazy fundamentalist creationists. It scares me incredibly.

[Hylas]

The news are mostly about gossip and terror. As I said they like to create phenomenons. They're so annoying they sometimes make me want to be unable to read.

[Pu the Owl]

When I think about journalism and journalists, I'm quite speachless myself. Sometimes I don't know if I have to be scared or amused, reading the stuff they can write without being ashamed of themselves, or at least feeling mean or ridiculous. And how they like to steal from their neighbouring colleagues!

My cousing is a journalist for one of the major newspapers around here. He's a nerd who basically doesn't know much about anything. He doesn't have his own opinions about anything of some relevance. He just naturally follows the mainstream, trying to change a bit the common opinion, to give the impression he's an individual, not just a branch in a tree. But seriously, he's clueless about many things, even about things he has to write about. His knowledge on most subjects is something you can get from fliers and cheap manuals. Not that he's a bad person, but it was a disappointment to discover, when I was younger, journalists don't really have to be cultured, well-read and intelectual people. Most of theing they talk about are invented or transformed to fit their audience. Most "trends" they create are all about selling, not about what really counts. They are more like publicists than anything else. Of course there are exceptions, but the greatest part of them are conformists who like to book a plane to Maldives whenrever they have time to spare - that's the case of my cousin, too

Originally Posted by Faile

You should read the letters page in my local paper. It's full of crazy fundamentalist creationists. It scares me incredibly.

We shall have a page or section to comment stuff like that. It would be great fun!

[Zebraman]

Journalists are humans too. Don't blame them for writing crap. It's the whole information and news system that's completely wrong. Most of them are just people who try to do they work selling people what they want to read and hear. Blame the public and the industry. Journalists are tools (they could learn to speak and spell though).

[Pu the Owl]

Originally Posted by Zebraman

Journalists are humans too. Don't blame them for writing crap.

Yes, they are humans. So what? Doctors are humans as well, but you can't say to not blame them if they make mistakes or act in a deceitful way. A professional is supposed to do his work at his best. Most journalists just tell lies or false interpretations of actual events to people. They give to the audience the version that will be more liked, or that will have more impact. They don't care much about truth. They don't "inform". That's not being human. That's being dishonest. They are corrupting the information industry as much as publishers and other professionals in the same field. They're not tools. People are tools in their hands.

[Faile]

Originally Posted by Panuru

We shall have a page or section to comment stuff like that. It would be great fun!

Oh, I hope so! I can ask how many of them have sailed off the edge of the world recently...

But I've been to the Vatican, as well you know, and it's full of Mummies and Pagan things. Odd really, plus my friend tried to break us in as pilgrims. That'll be me with my pagan family et all...