Who do you trust?

[Flyingfifer]

I spent five years doing a job that required critical, objective thinking. This has stuck hard so whatever I read, regardless of author/media outlet, gets processed by my brain looking for what is wrong, what may be right or wrong but has not been properly justified or sourced, and what is incorrectly or illogically argued - even if it's likely correct. I don't much mind what company or individual is behind the article, because I apply the same process to the information and if I feel it's logical and properly backed up with facts then I'll agree with it. I personally think that approaching any news story with a "why might that be misleading or untrue?" mindset is a good idea - not because I'm a conspiracy theorist or paranoid, but because it's about taking a step back and working out what else might be happening that wasn't written down or discovered. I hope that I managed to explain that without sounding like (too much of) a bellend :lol:

The comment earlier about headlines being designed to draw in readership is spot on, but not really the fault of journalists or their employers - it's a consequence of how the content is monetised.

Edited for clarity.

This is the approach I try to take, I use both Alt and MSM along with some critical thinking and am usually relatively confident I have a pretty good idea of the facts regardless of what side of the argument they support. Its also why I value discussion and debate so much, I enjoy hearing other peoples perspectives as they may have an angle that I didnt consider or information I'm not aware of.

People tend to read / listen to the media that confirms what they are thinking anyway. If you are left wing then Guardian and BBC are likely sources of your info. For the Right there is the Express and the Mail. I tend to read or listen to various and ask one question, I know what they are telling me, but what about the story is it they are choosing not to tell me.

100% this, the natural draw of confirmation bias is strong and its something I fight with as well, no one wants to be wrong.


Personally I have almost zero trust in the MSM, as someone rightly said earlier they no longer report the news they "make" the news whether thats in the form of sexed up headlines "clickbait" or an ideological telling of the facts where facts they like are presented and given weight but ones they dont like are either absent entirely or given minimal weight and often discounted. Basically lies by omission.
I grew up having alot of trust in the BBC news and more so Channel 4 news but these days I wouldnt trust anything they put out.

A strange phenomena is when someone is watching the news or reading the paper and see something they do not believe at all, they can argue as to why they dont believe it and can present arguments against it. They know that its a lie. Yet on the next page they will read a story they dont know about and will accept the facts as they are presented even though they only moments before called into question the legitimacy of the source. Humans are weird creatures

I do trust the Alt media far more and try to have a broad range of sources in terms of ideology, at the risk of sounding smarmy I think I have balanced it quite well because there is usually something that I will disagree with from each source so I am never 100% on board with everything they say and if it does get to that stage I try to get a different take on it to challenge that belief.