Skip to main content

News Reporting Shouldn't Guide Your Thinking - News Corp and Its Subsidiaries Isn't News, It's Opinion (Looking at you Sky News Australia)

Sky News Australia Filling Minutes with News Commentary and Opinion Surrounding Assassination Attempt on Trump.
Sky News Australia filling minutes with
commentary and opinion surrounding the
assassination attempt on Trump.
In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, I've been looking to YouTube to get more information about the events of that day as they unfolded.

One of the strengths of YouTube is that you get a real mix of news media across the political spectrum. One of it's weaknesses is that, when it comes to news, the algorithm geo-targets your location, so news from your local media outlets get priority. Which means a lot of Sky News Australia clips for me.

Sky News Australia is not a news organization any more than Fox News is in the USA, both of which are either owned or controlled by the same person and his family, Rupert Murdoch (who unfortunately hails from the very city I live in, Adelaide, South Australia).

I don't much care for Sky News Australia. Particularly in this case, where I see Americans commenting on their videos, saying things like, they can't believe they have to go outside their country to get 'honest' reporting on the assassination attempt because their media is 'dishonest' or 'fake'.

Sky News doesn't report news, it comments upon the news with opinion pieces ad nauseum. If you watch Sky, from the moment this attempt happened, you'll see a seemingly endless stream of videos commenting upon everything and anything they can put together to fill their 24 hour cycle with content.

From blaming the unprofessional security detail for allowing the attempt to happen, and how they conducted themselves around Trump in response to the gunfire, to Joe Biden's very delayed and lackluster response, to highlighting 'lefties' (their actual term) posting their disappointment that the gunman missed, or that this was a staged attempt.

News Corp and its subsidiaries, like Sky News, are the reason why modern media outlets are so polarized to either left or right wing opinion rather than just reporting the facts and letting viewers decide for themselves what it all means. 

Journalists, and the news organizations they work for are supposed to be impartial, neither for or against whatever is being reported. At least that's the ideal. But facts don't differentiate you from your competitors. Opinion does. Opinion gives you a demographic, and that demographic wants to hear you agree with their point of view.

Except even that isn't how it works.

Modern news commentary organisations don't just sell what they think you want to hear, they also highlight where you should focus your attention... specifically your outrage.

Both sides of politics have their fanatics. The Daily Show (not a real news organization either BTW) endlessly highlights right wing supporters, who are either die hard fanatics, or the other stereotype of being a few tools short of a whole set.

No sensible person on any side of the political fence, in a democracy, wants to see candidates working under the threat that, at any time, they could die just for publicly doing their job. Or that they don't feel that they can speak freely on their viewpoint for fear of being physically attacked in any way. 

Politicians in a democracy should be able to express their point of view without fear.

Personally, I don't like Donald Trump as President of the USA, or even as a candidate for that matter, but I can agree, he has exercised his democratic right to express his views, popular or otherwise. Honestly he had way more credibility to me when he was filming The Apprentice over his time as US President. It was a great show ("...it was one of the greatest shows!" to paraphrase Trump).

That said, the business of 'opinion news' and 'news commentary,' regardless of political leanings, really needs to take a look at what they're doing to communities with their separatist 'us and them' agendas. Constantly encouraging outrage for every little misstep they perceive this week, or even this hour in those 24 hour news cycles.

The rest of us need to recognize that watching news commentary and opinion does not make these views fact. If your news source is calling people names and generally dumping on any political, social, or minority group more than it is informing you of actual facts, you may want to broaden where you get your news from.

Preferably find a source that isn't guiding how you think, and just reports on the facts, seeking out voices from all sides with no opinion on the views expressed. 

TET Life Topics:

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Whimsical Cat Art Prints by TET (Redbubble Store)

Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 3

Enjoy Your Favorite TET Art Up Close, Interactive, and so Relaxing!

Enjoy Your Favorite TET Art Up Close, Interactive, and so Relaxing!
Relax and Challenge Yourself with a Fun, Whimsical Cat Art Jigsaw - 30-1000 pieces. Click Image for More.

Popular posts from this blog

Who Even Reads This?

W riting this blog is largely both a labor of love and a discipline. Since about 2006 (the blog started in 2004) I have written a minimum of two posts per month. Sometimes I've posted more, particularly in the last 4-5 years, where I've tried to write and post at least one article a week without fail. Unfortunately it's not a niche blog, unless the niche is things that interest me. Which means my blog is either too broad to have regular readers or too niche to have anyone other than my mum reading it. Which she does (hi Mum) as we established back in January of 2014 in the post Ya Mum Reads it... That said, this blog overall regularly gets 6-7k views every month, mostly through people finding various articles through search engines. By far the largest traffic source is 'Other' which is basically unknown sources. I'm willing to bet a large percentage of that is the dead internet. Bots testing my comments to see if they're spamable or Illuminati spammers. Whil...
3 comments
Continue Reading »

New Cat Art Collaboration: TET's Cats Paintings and OpenArt AI Model Workspace (Photobooth)

TET's Cats AI generated art trained on my own art style. Way back in the early 2000's I started painting stylized cat artworks to illustrate some cat themed poems I'd written, that I exhibited and sold online in an exhibition titled 'Sleeping Cats' in 2004. You can see all these early works in my Flickr Album . Many are also available to buy as prints in my RedBubble Store . Leading on from that I began selling my paintings on ebay where the cat themed works were almost guaranteed to sell over any other subject I painted. As a result I became some what known for my cat art to the point where people would commission me to create images of their own pet cats in my cartoony style. Flash forward a decade (almost two at this point) and I haven't painted any cat themed art in years. To be honest I haven't done any traditional painting at all in years. In the last couple of years AI image generators have really caught my attention. Specifically that they are able t...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...
16 comments
Continue Reading »

Review: ArtHelper - The All-In-One AI Writing + Marketing Assistant for Artists - 'ChatGPT for Artists'

ArtHelper prides itself on being all 'human-made' art. T he idea of an AI, trained specifically on art business marketing, that can not only offer advice on marketing your work, but also assist with creating all the content too, is certainly appealing. Especially to those of us who would rather spend more time creating our art than trying to sell it. ArtHelper does just that whilst attempting to be your 'home' on the internet. A destination for your profile and portfolio, a marketplace for your art, and a directory of artists as well, with one distinction - all the art must be human made. Which, for you AI artists, doesn't count the prompt for AI generated art - because the idea, according to ArtHelper's creators, isn't the art. Which is a fair point, in terms of promoting art 'made by a human', but can get kind of murky when you understand that not all AI art is generated from a single prompt... and 'found object art' isn't actually ...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

Embarrassing Yourself with Doof Doof Music

Ever since Spinal Tap popularized the notion of turning an amp up to eleven audio systems have been rising to the challenge of louder, more awesome sound. In particular, car audio systems have embraced the notion of the bigger the noise the better the sound must surely be. What I'd like to know is, if these sound systems are so good, why do they make all music sound the same... Doof, Doof, Doof? You've all heard them. Pimped up cars, with audio systems seemingly worth more than gold, volume blasting way past eleven. Sound waves booming long before you make a positive visual on the car... Doof, Doof, Doof. It has to be the audio system right? Surely all these people can't be playing the same tune? Doof, Doof, Doof. Could it be that the more money spent on a car sound system the less musical range it will actually play? Maybe these people can't afford to buy music after purchasing the audio system so they all play the same demo track? Doof, doof, doof. In my own car I hav...
14 comments
Continue Reading »

Making the Ukulele Cool Again By Inventing One That Transforms Into a Guitar Mid-Performance

Mattias playing the Ukulele that turns into a guitar in ukulele mode. Y ouTuber,  Mattias Krantz , set out to solve one of the biggest problems with ukuleles, and that is, they are ukuleles. As he points out in his video they're one of the only instruments that people respect you less for the better you get at playing them. As someone who bought a ukulele because I wanted to learn an instrument, and I couldn't really afford a guitar (plus I found a ukulele that I think is pretty cool, but only in comparison to other ukuleles) you can imagine my interest would be really piqued by a ukulele that transforms into a guitar. Anyway, there is not much that needs to be said other than, a ukulele that transforms into a guitar isn't a thing you can just buy off the shelf, which is why Mattias set out to invent one. Nothing I say will be more interesting than just sitting back and watching his video below. It's a fascinating journey that I wanted to share and, maybe one day, eith...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

TV Series Review: Lanterns (2026) HBOmax *No Spoilers*

Lanterns - HBOmax P ersonally I think the new DC Studios, Lanterns series is one of the best DC shows in quite some time. It even edges out The Penguin for me (just barely) because it has likeable characters. Don't get me wrong, The Penguin is a standout drama series for sure, but I prefer heroes to villains (or anti-heroes for that matter) even if villains get the better monologues. It's nice to have a show like Lanterns, where the heroes are the most interesting part of the story, and you hope they triumph in the end. That said, I have never really been a fan of the Green Lanterns. I don't have a preferred Lantern. The character was always just one of the lesser cool members of the Justice League to me. The only reason I even know Hal Jordan's name is due to the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie. Prior to that I just knew the character as Green Lantern. The only reason I know of Guy Gardener is from the Superman movie... and the only reason I know John Stuart is ...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »