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[emapples]

@emapples: Not so sure about your percentages there, but you are correct in that most colleges and universities do lean left. My second career was in higher ed here in Oklahoma, and yes, most of my colleagues were democrats, but the differences even 7 or 8 years ago is not nearly as much as it is today. I'd say that the big schools on both coasts may be more guilty of what you say, but not so much in the Midwest.

Add this: As stated above, the 24 hour news cycle has changed the way we get the news. That and the Internet. We get information (propaganda etc) in real time now, we don't have to wait until the nightly news at 10PM anymore, or read about it in the paper the next day. And the sources; the internet provides us with tons of sites that "report" the news...take your pick; examples are say...CNN (left) and the New York Post (right). They may both "report" the same story, but they will tell often it entirely differently, formed to fit their politics.

What I am driving at here is the question of what happened to "just the facts" - just tell me the facts and let me form my own opinion. Instead, it seems we are told how to think more and more by the media than we were just a few years ago. Who knows what to believe anymore?

Edited: I think the BBC actually does a better job of reporting with some integrity than about anybody else.

I think you are making a mistake assuming we ever received “just the facts”. We have Alinskian news today, todays news/media is just a tool to apply his principles from Rules for Radicals. As far as your experience in higher ed, you have to remember you live in the one of the last bastions of conservatism in the country (so i would say of course its less than the mean)

1. "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."
2. "Never go outside the expertise of your people."
3. "Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy."
4. "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage."
6. "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."
7. "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag."
8. "Keep the pressure on."
9. "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. "
10. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition."
11. "If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative."
12. "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative."
13. "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. "

 

[kirk1978]

Right now its not about the ratings or the money, its about their agenda.

 

[Snattlerake]

The 24 hour news is absolutely correct as the start of fake news.

The fake news for me was birthed when CNN became a 24 hour news channel. There was not enough news to fill up the 24 hours so they figured out opinions were OK to put out there with point counterpoint. A mini war of words every day on different shows. When the hosts of the shows became stars instead of news anchors, they became self important and self serving. Money poured in and the beast was born. Now it is to the point where news is enhanced, spun to the left or even made up out of thin air, I trust nothing that comes from the Communist News Network. The new York Crimes and Washington Compost are as bad or worse.

Take the example of Hunter Biden's emails.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Right now its not about the ratings or the money, its about their agenda.

I'm pretty sure it's all about money all the time. They get ratings by pushing the bias harder and pushing the weak minded people into a fever of political angst. More ratings, more money. Oddly enough, they all share a lot of the same advertisers because it's all about influencing purchase power. It's always been, since day one, money.

 

[druryj]

It's just a sorry thing that we don't get "the news" in an unbiased way that allows us to come to our own conclusions.

 

[druryj]

I think you are making a mistake assuming we ever received “just the facts”. ...

And you're right, we have never received "just the facts" in a completely honest way I suppose. There's always a spin on it one way or the other, if it's at all controversial or political.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

It's just a sorry thing that we don't get "the news" in an unbiased way that allows us to come to our own conclusions.

Look how easily the populace is influenced... Can't blame em for taking the easy win.

 

[emapples]

And you're right, we have never received "just the facts" in a completely honest way I suppose. There's always a spin on it one way or the other, if it's at all controversial or political.

Well I think the sociologist call it herding .....tell enough lies in enough place people just follow along.

 

[gerhard1]

Right now its not about the ratings or the money, its about their agenda.

Agreed. Ideology is playing more and more of a part in the way the news is reported. Granted, it has alway played a parr, but I have never seen it this bad.

And yes; I remember Walter Cronkite. He was a bit more biassed than my good friend Joel remembers him, but he was fair on most things.

 

[Dumpstick]