Time to require broadcasters to fact check or be fined

[Nancy Waterman]

A simple fact check would have stopped the $200 million dollar a day India trip lie and about a million other lies. Can it be done without Congress with a new rule by the FCC? It would mean real journalism not just checking a right-wing website on the internet. We need to do something drastic with the right-wing alternative fact bubble now electing people who also believe the lies and want to run the government based on the same lies.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. I'd support it. I'm sick and tired of this "new journalism" that's just "make shit up and repeat it"

I'd love it if it were made easier for folks to sue or bring fines for blatant falsities, especially in news reporting.

And it should also mean disclosing the bona fides of any 'expert' brought in to talk about stuff. It's not enough due diligence on the part of the network to just say that the person they brought in is, for example, an 'expert' on calculating costs for presidential trips - they better tell us how many years experience, how often they've been correct, and any other pertinent information.

Because I'm also sick and tired of "journalists" who say shit like "Some people are saying that..." (they pulled that off freerepublic) or "it's been reported that..." (those 'reports' being from some asshole's blog) or "We asked an expert about this who said..."

[Nancy Waterman]

3. Something dramatic and strong needs to be done soon

We are drowning in lies. Rachel did an amazing piece on this issue tonight.

[trueblue2007]

4. RACHEL'S PIECE TONIGHT ROCKED

she showed how that 200 million India trip was a total lie. She always fact checks her information

[Pholus]

2. Good luck, the FCC is already pwned.

[tridim]

5. I've been thinking about how to get some kind of "Reality Seal of Approval" on Google results

Fake information is dangerous, and it will get worse as time goes on.

[Nancy Waterman]

6. It is very dangerous

Almost everyone who voted Republican voted based on false information.
Eventually this fantasy world they keep perpetrating and reality will crash into each other,
and it won't be pretty. That is exactly what happened with the fiasco known as the Iraq War.
No WMD, no quick easy success, instead we got a trillion dollar boondoggle that still isn't fully resolved.
It is also what happened to an economy based on the fantasy of tax cuts that weren't paid for, that
supposedly, magically would create jobs and lower the deficit, but they didn't.

Facts and reality matter! Time to make fact checking law.

[BootinUp]

7. You are dreaming.

focus on supporting organizations that do this now and ones that do a good job of it.

[onenote]

8. would you apply this only to over the air broadcasting?

what about satellite delivered content? the internet? newspapers?

and what legion of regulator is going to scour the media looking for errors? and when an error gets reported and then picked up by, say, a wire service, does the fine apply to the wire service or every single media outlet that repeats it?

[Nancy Waterman]

9. I don't know the details but something has to be done

I keep reading about people who voted Republican based on the lies they heard in the biased right-wing media.
Who would have voted GOP if they understood what GOP policies really mean and what they will lead to?
We now have a Congress with a warped understanding of the facts. That leads to warped policies. This is
how we got into Iraq. We got conned by right-wing demagoguery. It is only worse now regarding economic policy.
The only beneficiaries of the Iraq war were the war-related corporations (Haliburton, Lockheed Martin, Blackwater, etc.). The only beneficiaries of the current GOP economic policies are big global corporations, but the average voter doesn't see that at all.
they think they are voting for their "freedom" against the Manchurian candidate communist dictator. Elections have consequences. So do lies.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

10. I was watching a documentary

on TCM about the Nazi's and one of their tenants was to repeat a lie until it became the truth. I think that ideology is what is at work today.

[kwolf68]

11. The media = Shit

Im sick of the propaganda.

Here is how it's played:

-Republicans scream the media is Liberal. This suggests ANY NEWS that does not follow an ostensibly Conservative position as null and void. However, they will promote PRO Conservative news in this same media.

See, the media is only biased when it seems to support Liberal position/perspective. But that media which is suggesting a perspective that would be positive to Conservatives (such as government waste and fraud in the Dept of Education) IS NOT biased.

This is how they do it with global warming. EVERY scientist is a liar, a Liberal propagandist who suggests we are aiding the warming of the planet. However, a scientist with a Conservative position is NOT doctering his data and is telling the truth.

Same way with academia. Liberal academics are liars and propagandists, they are brainwashing the youth. The ENTIRE cadre' of professors are part of a Marxist takeover of the hearts and minds of the young. However, a professor with a Conservative position is NOT being mis-leading, he is just telling the facts.

So they discredit the entire institution of the media, science and academia...because some information coming from the aforementioned hamper the cause of Conservatism. BUT, they sure as hell don't mind USING academics, scientists or the media when they are complicit in their agenda.

Part of the right-wing propaganda is to suggest all information counter their perspective is left wing propaganda. It's brilliant and we need to call them out on it.

next time some asshole like Inhofe trots a scientist out for public consumption just ask him, "I thought you said scientists were biased?"