The news

Periodically, I need to just vent. I have decided to put together several posts for that very reason. I'm not just pushing myself to open up, but I'm actually willing to go beyond what I really think on a number of issues. This is one of these posts. Expect this to turn out as an incomprehensible irrational rant.

Years ago, a train derailed near a local park. I saw where this train derailed. Although it wasn't a major incident, it made the news. One car was reportedly leaking, and nearby homes were warned. The article I read mentioned that the train derailed in the middle of a residential area. That was a little misleading. They made it sound like it was right in front of houses when the closest houses were probably around a half mile away.

Donald Trump's first impeachment started with a document released from the White House. This document showed that Trump wanted Ukraine to launch a couple investigations. The first was a conspiracy theory involving a company called CrowdStrike. Trump brought this up after being asked about aid. He also referred to the investigation as "a favor." The second investigation was into the Biden family. The media reported that the change in topic and mention of a favor were regarding an investigation into the Biden family.

The document in question was just as easy to read as the media's reports on what the document contained. Were we not supposed to read it? Much like the train derailment, I had something to check the media against and found something wrong.

It seems like every time I can check the media's narrative, I find something wrong. What if I have nothing to check the media against?

Years ago, students attending Covington Catholic made the news. A video popularized by a fake Twitter account showed these students seemingly getting in the face of a Native American protester. Various media agencies pounced on this story. Additional video revealed that it was actually the Native American getting in the face of the students. Some news agencies put up a correction of sorts, but they tried to downplay their wrongdoing. For example, the Washington Post refused to admit that they were wrong. Instead, they pushed the corny cop out that the story was more complicated than first reported.

With the train derailment and the White House document, there were no corrections. The media gets a lot wrong, but they usually refuse to acknowledge mistakes. Even in the rare instance that they admit errors, this would require rereading an old article. Like most people, I don't bookmark every article just in case they make an update.

The media is so unreliable right now. In some cases, they might not know enough about what they are reporting. In other cases, they are pushing a political agenda. This is why I don't trust Fox News. It's also why I don't trust ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Washington Post, or New York Times.

In this country, you have a choice. You can be uninformed, or you can be misinformed. I have generally sided with being uninformed because I hate being manipulated. That doesn't mean I like being uninformed. It drives me nuts that I have no idea what's really going on in this world.

Despite my issues, I just about lost it when Trump insisted the media is an enemy of the people. Yes, media in its current form is seriously problematic, but that has more to do with implementation than the concept. We need the media, but we need it in an honorable manner.

Unfortunately, many liberals responded to Trump's words by showing an increased interest in journalism. I saw numerous individuals online insist that they wanted to enter the profession just because they hate Trump. I found this deeply concerning. We do not need partisanship to become an even bigger part of the news than it is now.

As of right now, I hate the news. They control the information, but they won't hesitate to lie. There are no reliable information sources in America, which is precisely why I keep complaining about an informational crisis. For those of us who want to know what's really going on, who can we turn to? Who can we trust? Until those questions can be answered, I will have to accept the fact that I'm an uninformed citizen, just like everybody else who doesn't prefer to be misinformed.