Mastodawn

Nov 17, 2022

JOURNALISM 101 RULE: If someone says it’s raining, and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out of the fucking window and find out which is true. — Now more than ever.

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WesDym Nov 18, 2022

@Strandjunker I'd call this an over-simplification, in the "not even wrong" vein.

'Journalism' covers a lot of duties, one of which is reporting pretty much anything that any public figure says, no matter how asinine. The fact they said it is news all by itself, independent of truth or decency. The public have a right to know what leaders say, however stupid.

New ANALYSIS is related, but separate. This seems to be what's being addressed here, but not all news is analysis.

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pagangod (he/him)Apr 2, 2023

@wesdym @Strandjunker If a public figure says something asinine, one can report that the figure is being asinine and lying foremost, and only footnote what they were claiming, rather than featuring what they were claiming and footnoting the "disagreement".

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WesDym Apr 2, 2023

@pagangod Then that's not reporting, but offering opinion. Two different things. You can do that, yes, and there is media specifically for that (op-ed), but it's not reporting. Reporting is objective and does not include opinion.

You're arguing that there should be no such thing as objective reporting.

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pagangod (he/him)Apr 3, 2023

@wesdym Leaving aside the "asinine", lying is objective and factual. You can objectively report that someone is lying, and that their lying is the factual story. You can support that reporting with what they were lying about, what they said, and what other people say.
I guess it is "opinion" that a brazen lie that is easy to verify is a lie and obviously self-serving is asinine. It might also be opinion to speculate about why they are lying.

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WesDym

@pagangod I known that you're sincere about all this, but you're also somewhat naïve about it, and a little ignorant about some of the legal issues. For example, if a journalist publicly and credibly accuses someone of lying, and can't back it up with evidence that would stand up in a court of law, then they could be sued for defamation. The fact that we "know" Trump lies doesn't mean that a reporter can SAY that. What you'd do instead is report someone ELSE saying that.