TRUST the MEDIA?
NEWSBREAK by EUCLID MEDIA SHOWS WHY YOU CAN’T
A recent GALLUP poll was titled, “PEOPLE WITH NO TRUST IN MEDIA HITS RECORD. According to the long trusted organization for surveying the feelings of the American public, a whopping 60 percent of Americans have “little or no trust in the media.” Thirty-one percent say they have a “fair amount” of trust and only 9 percent have a “great deal of trust” – I think I have hit upon an answer!
To be fair, I used to enjoy the fact that NEWSBREAK, the app on my phone, gave me current, almost up to the minute news from my area… BUT they have proven they cannot be trusted to represent their name “NEWS…”
It used to be, a long time ago in a land far away that the NEWS media whether it was print or electronic media, reported the news and you could determine your own opinion about it. In the print media there would be an OPINION page where the editors or whomever could spout an opinion. But it was presented as ‘opinion’ not fact. Not with EUCLID MEDIA GROUP! The news and the writer’s opinions (no matter how biased) come together like a YAB – (that is Klingon for a Klingon mind-meld.)
Here is today’s example brought to you by their Euclid Media’s Newsbreak writer (who was hired, I understand to run their website but has become a writer) – not sure if any of his classwork at Case Western was in journalism and even if it was, I’m sure he did not take Journalism Ethics 101. (To be accurate, I’m not sure if he graduated from Case; but he says he attended there, although one background source does not show any post high school degrees). The ‘writer’ (I don’t choose to use the term journalist) is Vincent Grzegorek.
In the Journalism Ethics he would have learned, hopefully, that reporting the news and giving one’s opinion of the news are two separate categories. The opinion part is to be clearly noted as ‘opinion’ so as not to confuse anyone,
Let’s examine the story he posted just today (Jan 27th) about a request by Stark County Republican Voters for the Stark County Commissioners hold off on a $6.45 million dollar expenditure for the acquisition of voting machines made by Dominion until their accuracy could be assured. The State would cover $3.27 million and Dominion would give a rebate of $1.71 million for the old equipment. Stark County is on the hook for $3.18 million and assuming they get the rebate, it would be down to $1.74 million.
That is the actual news story… ‘just the facts’ like Det. Sgt. Friday used to say.
Here is Vincent’s rendition, let’s begin with his article’s title: “Badgered by Trump Supporters, Stark Commissioners Now Concerned About County’s Impending Purchase of Dominion Voting Machines.” There is no bias in that headline, right? Let’s continue…
“Trump supporters who believe in the utterly false claims peddled by the former president, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a group of right wing media outlets that voting machines sold by Dominion Voting Systems had been hacked or intentionally switched votes in the 2020 presidential election…”
Then there is: “taken the concerns of those who have reached out spouting the same nonsense to heart and have scheduled a meeting next Tuesday with the Board of Elections to review the purchase.”
And he goes on to report that Dominion has sued Giuliani “for his repeated baseless claims against the company.’
The bolding I have added for clarity. The trial judge is to be the trier of fact and decide whether or not Giuliani’s claims are “baseless” and since that hasn’t happened yet, Vincent seems to be rushing to be the judge, jury, and executioner here.
Vince seems to have no regard at all for the opinions of people that differ from his own and he is quick to make it clear in his writing! As long as people like Vince are on the staff of the Euclid Media Group and Newsbreak, I won’t be reading them, and I will be a little skeptical about their sponsors. It should interest anyone reading this to know that Euclid Media Group also spins this swill through, Creative Loafing, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati CityBeat, Cleveland Scene, Detroit Metro Times, Orlando Weekly, San Antonio Current, St. Louis Riverfront Times, OutInSA and OutInSTL.
To be fair, Euclid Media Group is not the only media source who hire guys like Vince and print their skewed writing to please their liberal base. In fact, the media world is full of them and being a liberal with a highly self-aggrandizing opinion of oneself is, it seems, a basic qualification for working in media, at least in this type.
I know there are good, even great journalists out there. I knew one in particular who had a byline for years with the Akron Beacon Journal. Even well into what should have been his retirement years, he was still covering the police beat for the ABJ. When I was Chief of Police, I knew I could trust George to cover our stories fairly and accurately. George Davis was a newsman in the best sense of the word. Where have men like George gone? I’m sure there are some, I pray there will be more.
The foregoing statements are completely the opinion of the author.
