Modern Media and the 'NEWS'

[Andeh13]

I have become increasingly dishearted with modern media and how I get my news. At work all they buy for the lunch room is the Guardian, Daily Mail and the Mirror, all which I read almost to remind myself why I despise them so much. I always swore by the BBC, but more & more of their stories I also find miss key facts and are written to help me make up my mind....

Take the big story yesterday, a women is set upon by private Investigators hired by her Fire Service 999 call centre employer, over them suspecting she was taking the mick with her sick leave!

It took 4 news outlets for me to get all the facts about it, all 4 news outlets slated the fire service for wasting tax payers money & stalking the 'poor women'. After re-reading the story on all the news outlets, EVERY single one of them missed our key facts...

Key facts all 4 outlets missed one, two or more of...

1) She took 12 months maternity leave
2) She set up her own (part time) balloon decorating business
3) Soon after she got back from the maternity leave she took long term sick leave due to 'stress & hypertension'
4) SHE said that she thought the fire service were suspicious of her running her part time business whilst on sick leave
5) She accepts the payout, leaves the job... and now manages said balloon decorating business full time.

Now, to me that utterly smacks of her taking the mick with two systems put in place to help those in genuine need - especially long term paid sick leave. However, ALL 4 news outlets spun the story (missing out vital facts) into making her look like she was being victimised & bullied by the Fire Service, and she was just a helpless victim.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-service.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...racker-2129192
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-23588092
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...py-on-her.html

[On a side point...Another point which had steam coming out of my ears was the Daily Mail continuing it further with front page articles on how the Government was funding Private investigators to spy & follow people and how much of a waste of money etc it was, then went on to explain the victims of such treatment were suspect benefit fraud, insurance fraud, illegal immigration, sick leave abusers etc the very stories the Daily Mail gets all frothy & giggly over for it's latest sensationalist headlines! They honestly change their mind with the wind direction when it comes to the next bullocks headline they can scare us all with! ]

So please, this evening I want to change my homepage off the BBC to a neutral, facts & figures, reduced spin, news outlet that won't make me genuinely worry about Democracy succeeding only with an informed population. What can you recommend?

[wasabi]

Facts have little to do with it. BBC news covering wars in the middle East have endless human interest stores (hopital beds, brave soldiers looking forward to going home to see their baby son etc etc). Talking about the differences between Shia and Sunni, local political factions, historical factors in the area leading up to the conflict. Nah.

[BobF64]

What can you recommend?

The Onion

[TheAnimus]

What can you recommend?

The Economist.

It is the only news outlet that doesn't make me angry about how obviously ignorant the correspondent is (if they even have one, often they just regurgitate some wire service).

Okay, so its not a daily publication, but it is hands down the best for actual news and analysis, they also aren't up their own chuffing anus.

[Andeh13]

The economist was actually surprisingly pleasant to read. The article on the 'save the children, block porn' was refreshingly accurate in my opinion.

Currently the 'Britain' section will be my homepage, with 'the world' as a second tab unless anyone can suggest anything without ads & more frequently updated? The ads are very annoying!


edit: The Onion will be bookmarked at the top, as accurate as the Daily Mail but several times funnier!

[Phage]

I get Australian Newspapers for free on the ipad. They tend to be far less slanted than the UK press.
Well, apart from the sports coverage obviously.

[TheAnimus]

The economist was actually surprisingly pleasant to read. The article on the 'save the children, block porn' was refreshingly accurate in my opinion.

Currently the 'Britain' section will be my homepage, with 'the world' as a second tab unless anyone can suggest anything without ads & more frequently updated? The ads are very annoying!

Subscribe and there are no adverts. It's well worth the money in my mind, because the quality is so excellent, I feel almost obligated to support it.

I get Australian Newspapers for free on the ipad. They tend to be far less slanted than the UK press.
Well, apart from the sports coverage obviously.

Aren't they all owned by Murdoch? (And no, not the evil guy from McGyver)

[Phage]

Apparently not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Media

Not evil - just a little 'touched'...ya know ?

[BobF64]

edit: The Onion will be bookmarked at the top, as accurate as the Daily Mail but several times funnier!

With the added bonus that it knows its only pretending to be serious, unlike the Daily Fail.