Never Trust the News

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I worked as a Journalist while serving in the United States Navy. The first things they teach you as a Journalist is to only report verified facts and keep your personal opinion out of the articles you write or present on television. Too bad the majority of news agencies don’t follow the main rules of Journalism.

Although all news agencies report unverified facts, or make stuff up, the majority of those news agencies are Liberal. This includes ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and many others. I will admit that Fox News, a Conservative news outlet, has on numerous occasions presented unverified facts or made up a news story, so Conservative news outlets are not exempt from creating and presenting fake news.

Now I will give you information that is currently considered to be verified facts. Anything mentioned in a news article or broadcast that contains anything that is not verified facts is classified as “fake” news.

Our verified facts are:  Andrew came home from a shopping trip to Kroger today and when he got home he found his wife, daughter, and mother in-law, dead and lying in a pool of blood in the living room. Police are conducting an investigation, they have no suspects, and they do not have anyone in custody.

There are three ways a Journalist or news organization can present this information. ONE is to state only verified facts and to keep opinions out of it. TWO is to report verified facts but throw an opinion in. THREE is to outright lie and make stuff up to make a sensational story even though it is false. Ready? Let’s do this!

ONE – REPORT ONLY VERIFIED FACTS

“Andrew came home from a shopping trip to Kroger today and when he arrived home he found his wife, daughter, and mother in-law dead and lying in a pool of blood in the living room. Police state they don’t have anyone in custody and they have no suspects at this time. We will report more facts as we receive them.”

TWO – REPORT VERIFIED FACTS BUT ALSO THROW IN UNVERIFIED INFORMATION AND YOUR OPINIONS

“Andrew came home from a shopping trip to Kroger today and when he arrived home he found his wife, daughter, and mother in-law dead and lying in a pool of blood in the living room. Police state they don’t have anyone in custody and they have no suspects at this time. You want to know what I think? I believe Andrew murdered his family, drove to Kroger to shop as an alibi, then came home to report his family is dead.”

THREE – IGNORE THE FACTS AND TOTALLY MAKE UP A FAKE STORY

“Andrew returned home from a shopping trip to Kroger and murdered his family. More details later.”

If you were the person in this story who found their family dead when you returned home would you want only verified facts presented, or would you like the facts presented with the Journalist insinuating you killed your family, or would you want the third situation where they flat-out lied about you?

Of course you would want the first scenario where only verified facts are presented. Anything else is “fake” news. Never trust what you hear or read in the news. When you hear or read something research of at least six other sources before you come to a conclusion. If the majority of the additional sources coincide with the original story then you can consider the story to be factual. If the majority of the additional sources contradict the original story then you can consider the original story to be “fake” news.