Finding reliable news sources

It’s hard to figure out a reputable media source to gather accurate information with countless avenues to obtain news in our country. It is vital to distinguish between opinion and fact to avoid having different bases of information. Facts can’t be argued against as they are provable. Unfortunately, people often disagree on what is factual and what isn’t. Opinion is someone’s perspective and can be argued against. It is vital to know the difference to avoid pointless arguments.

Criteria for a reliable news source would require no fabrication, diligent research, objectivity, checking multiple sources, and keeping emotion, innuendos, speculation, even tone of voice and body language under check in an attempt to remove biases out of reporting. Professional media retracts and corrects even the slightest error and explains stories that are murky or nuanced. Journalists with poor reputations for inaccurate or false work are black balled from the profession and sometimes disciplined. Dan Rather apparently inadvertently used forged documents covering ex-President George W. Bush’s military record. Several CBS personnel lost their jobs and Dan Rather “retired.”

A recent example of sloppy research is one portion, among several, in the 2,000 Mules movie that incorrectly claimed people were illegally ballot gathering and depositing the ballots in a drop box. The state in question, Georgia, allows citizens to legally drop off ballots of their family members and was cited as evidence of illegal voting activity. That incident severely damaged the credibility of the movie. In addition Dinesh D’Souza, the filmmaker of 2,000 Mules, pleaded guilty to illegal campaign contributions in incidents unrelated to the film. Finally, D’Souza is being sued by the Georgia man falsely accused of ballot fraud in the film.

Opinion is certainly an important outlet for people to promote their agenda, right, left, libertarian, etc.; but it is not news and all of us need to be more discerning. Recent legal decisions involving Fox News is an example of entertainment/opinion/money making masquerading as news with deliberate reporting of false information. Rachel Maddow has a progressive agenda, but is also not objective.

Professionally focused papers, journals, magazines, TV and cable, etc. report on the statements and errors of politicians of all persuasions, not just the ones they agree with. Washington Post routinely reports on the level of accuracy of statements by politicians by such as Trump, Biden and DeSantis in their Fact Checker articles and rates their questionable statements on a 1 to 4 Pinocchio scale, 1 Pinocchio being not a complete lie or fabrication to 4 Pinocchios for “pants on fire” lies.

One could occasionally read an article of an opposing viewpoint from a reasonable, rational writer who is not trying to inflame or gather attention. You don’t have to believe her/him but it is helpful to be exposed to a different point of view. Gary Abernathy, George Will and Michael Gerson are all respected, rational, conservative columnists. Gerson (recently deceased) quite often had an evangelical Christian theme in his writings that may be of interest to others with a similar viewpoint.

The Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post (WP), Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and New York Times are generally considered top of the line news sites with reliable, non-emotional presentations and well researched sources. They may have an editorial bias but it is kept to the opinion pages. The WP, PBS and Atlantic Monthly are known for having both conservative and liberal commentators published or presented on a regular basis.

Please consider this in light of the important 2024 elections.

Steve Oswald, Thompson Falls