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Bettina's avatar

You are so right, Alex. Drives me mad that most people think what the TV tells them to think and they have so disengaged their brains they don't even realise they have been given their 'opinions'. Aaaaaarrrgghh

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Dan Segal's avatar

And even when reporting matters of objective, verifiable historic facts, the media often get it wrong, deliberately.

Here’s just NBC:

1993:

NBC Admits It Rigged Crash, Settles GM Suit

In an extraordinary public apology, NBC said Tuesday night that it erred in staging a fiery test crash of a General Motors pickup truck for its “Dateline NBC” news program and agreed to settle a defamation suit filed by the auto maker.

“We deeply regret we included the inappropriate demonstration in our ‘Dateline’ report,” said a statement read by NBC News co-anchors Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips Tuesday night. “We apologize to our viewers and to General Motors. We have also concluded that unscientific demonstrations should have no place in hard news stories at NBC. That’s our new policy.”

The apology, still being negotiated within five minutes of air time, was part of a settlement of a lawsuit GM filed Monday over film used in a Nov. 17 segment of “Dateline.”

In its apology, NBC admitted that it had used incendiary devices to ensure that a fire would erupt if gasoline leaked from the truck being hit by a test car...

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-10-mn-1335-story.html

2012:

NBC issues apology on Zimmerman tape screw-up

“During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.”

That apology addresses the “Today” show’s failure to abridge accurately the conversation between Zimmerman and the dispatcher in this high-profile case. This is how the program portrayed a segment of that conversation:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

And here is how it actually went down:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/nbc-issues-apology-on-zimmerman-tape-screw-up/2012/04/03/gIQA8m5jtS_blog.html

2015:

NBC suspends Brian Williams for six months over Iraq helicopter story

Network says actions of TV news anchor were ‘wrong and completely inappropriate’ and he is being taken off-air without pay

theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/11/brian-williams-nbc-suspends-news-anchor-for-six-months-over-helicopter-story

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