Something I’ve noticed lately is how bizarre the news coverage has become. Not only are thinly-sourced reports or exaggerations repeated until they become accepted facts, non-stories are treated as stories while significant events are frequently ignored or, at least, severely under-reported.
I’m taking nominations for stories that fit into any of those three categories: the questionable, the over-reported, and the under-reported. I’ll start with a story I think is questionable: that the Houthis who overthrew the Yemeni government are actually sponsored by Iran. If you search for “Iran-sponsored Houthis” in Google, you’ll get three quarters of a million results.
While I have little doubt that the Iranians have given the Houthis some arms and, maybe, some training, is there evidence that they’re actually sponsored by Iran in any meaningful way? That they wouldn’t have overthrown the Yemeni government without Iran’s connivance? If there is I haven’t seen it. Every single actual authority on Yemen whose commentary I’ve read have expressed doubt.
So, let’s have your nominations: questionable stories repeated so frequently they’re now taken as facts, over-reported stories, under-reported stories.
I don’t feel qualified because you need information coming from other channels (like the Yemen experts you mention) in order to fact check the news stories that come through the main channels.
But hasn’t it always been so? I have little doubt that we were led to believe that the USSR was more nefarious than it really was, for instance. So I’m just questioning the idea that this is a new phenomenon.
There’s also something I’ve heard referred to as “the Dopeler effect”, the principle by which dumb ideas sound smart when they’re coming towards you at a high rate of speed.
With respect to the Soviet Union I don’t think the disinformation was so much that they were being portrayed as being more nefarious than they actually were but that they were portrayed as more powerful than they actually were. That was particularly true in the 1950s but continued right through the Soviet era.
The Soviets were really masters of disinformation.
Somewhat similar to the quote attributed to WC Fields:
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
WRT your comment about the Soviets, that’s why your Iranian example reminded me of that era. Isn’t it likely, if this is a disinformation campaign, that it is based on Iran’s desire to project power accompanied by their enemies’ desire to create fear?
While I have little doubt that the Iranians have given the Houthis some arms and, maybe, some training, is there evidence that they’re actually sponsored by Iran in any meaningful way?
I get the impression that this _IS_ meaningful support in that part of the world.
Under-reported: The hollowing out of the age 25-54 age cohort w.r.t. decent employment. As I’ve linked to in the past, the data is out there, though it is somewhat scattered. (To the point that I suspect it is being intentionally obscured.) There’s talk of how the participation percentage has dropped because of the greyinig of America, but looking at just the 25-54 cohort shows that to be a specious line of argument. Actually, this also qualifies as questionable, since the pushed story-line is obviously, demonstrably wrong, yet is reported repeatedly, thus making it fit the third category, too.
Hat trick!
A few quick and general suggestions in the “questionable” category. I realize I’m probably stretching the rules of the post:
– The US/CIA funded or created AQ and the Taliban
– The idea that mandatory national service is a good idea and would bring the country closer together.
– Something akin to Somalia is the end result of libertarian policies
– Nuclear weapons bring stability because…the Cold War…so nuclear weapons aren’t that bad.
– 95% of social science research reported in the news and close to that for health and nutrition science.
– They most important element to immigration control is border security.
Underreported stories:
– The South China Sea
– Federal government systemic dysfunction
– The Drug War in central and northern South America
– Latin America’s enablement of illegal immigration to the US.
– Libya (or North Africa generally)
– Egypt’s insurgency in the Sinai
– Sudan / South Sudan and all of sub-saharan Africa.
– ISIS sex slavery as compared to Boko Haram’s.
I won’t bother with the over-reported stories since most of the regulars here seem to be news junkies.
You’re being too kind, Andy. Our Africa coverage is terrible. Our South America coverage is terrible. Nearly all of our overseas coverage that can’t be done from the bar of the Intercon is terrible.
Questionable stories:
1) A “video” was the root of the Benghazi uprising.
2) The causes of global warming is a settled science — end of discussion.
3) UE is at 5.5%
4) The world is a better more peaceful place under the current administration
5) Racism and gender bias are gigantic problems in the U.S.
6) The real National Debt numbers.
7) Sequestration was going to be catastrophic
8) Assad must go!
9) Iran will be stopped from getting the nuclear bomb…under the current framework, and the Ayatollah is joking when he speaks harshly to his people about the U.S.
Underreported Stories:
1) The rules of engagement hampering, endangering and demoralizing the military.
2) Data publicized from credible warming skeptics.
3) Christians persecuted, imprisoned and killed in the ME; current Cuban human rights violations
4) The disruption of health care services in rural areas
5) Millennial and minority unemployment
6) China overtaking the U.S. as the top investment magnet
7) Economic and Press freedoms shrink significantly under the Obama Administration, via global studies
8) Ebola — current status
9) Russian incursions into Ukraine
Underreported-
-Restructuring efforts in hospitals to save costs while maintaining or increasing quality (including the merger activity)
-The China bubble
-Antibiotic resistance
-Suicide, drug, alcohol and behavioral problems from our soldiers constant deployments
-Our problems with procurements and budgets in the Defense Department
-How far behind computer systems are throughout the federal government compared with the private sector
-Police violence and seizure of property in the War on Drugs
-Legal but secret money in politics
-The influence of religion in the US
Overreported
Celebrity stories
All of the partisan stories, not limited to but including
-Anything related to LGBT issues
-Benghazi, the IRS, Fast and Furious, the Churchill bust, birth certificates, fake climate science, etc.
-Guilt by association stories
Steve
Over reported: Anything to do with Ferguson, Missouri.
Under reported: the prevalence of black on black crime, especially violent crimes. Seriously, reading the news you’d think cops kill about 90% of all blacks killed by violence. Looking at the actual numbers would change perceptions, especially if crime rates by race were published. The upshot is that we get a lot of white reporters descending on a black community whenever a white cop shots a black man, going to the local soul food joint to show they’re down with the struggle, and ignoring all the other black bodies piling up.
Under reported:
– stories that make my side look good
– stories that make the other side look bad
Over reported:
– stories that make my side look bad
– stories that make the other side look good
Questionable:
– any story on CNN* **
* I can’t help but think that Ted Turner gets sick whenever he turns on one of the CNN channels.
** Could safely extend this to include all NBC news outlets, CBS News, ABC News, Fox News Channel.
You know I’ve often wondered whether black police officers shoot and kill black folk as frequently as white police officers do. That’s one of the problems with local governments’ reluctance to report their own results and media failures to report. We just don’t know.
steve:
The degree to which guilt by association is being used as irrefutable proof of perfidy simply drives me bonkers.
A lot of all of this is just the general decline of news rooms but that’s not the whole story. One of the reasons for news rooms’ decline is the unrealistic idea of the salaries that reporters (and people working in the news media) should receive. As I’ve said before, journalism is not a profession; it’s a craft. It’s like being a baker or a plumber not like being a physician. And it’s even less like being a financier.