So When Should News Be Able To Be Reported?

[StevenBelievin]

So, there's the Trump gave the Russians classified info thing. So what? The President has the authority to declassify anything he wants to. The only illegal act that happened was that someone who was in the room told someone else or told the news. Either of those is illegal. I guess the Dems / Liberals are so focused on looking for a smoking gun that they will try to manufacture one out of duct tape. So now CNN and MSNBC are going ballistic over this heinous crime that isn't one. Then there's the NYT thing about a supposed memo Comey got from Trump suggesting he should stop an investigation into Flynn? Does anyone have a picture of this memo or the memo itself? Where is it? Does anyone have a recording or transcript of Trump telling the Russians anything specific? Putin has actually stated that he would release the entire transcript if Trump said it was ok.

The point is news agencies reporting something as fact without having any actual hard evidence.

He said / she said is not evidence.

 

[eldios]

So, there's the Trump gave the Russians classified info thing. So what? The President has the authority to declassify anything he wants to. The only illegal act that happened was that someone who was in the room told someone else or told the news. Either of those is illegal. I guess the Dems / Liberals are so focused on looking for a smoking gun that they will try to manufacture one out of duct tape. So now CNN and MSNBC are going ballistic over this heinous crime that isn't one. Then there's the NYT thing about a supposed memo Comey got from Trump suggesting he should stop an investigation into Flynn? Does anyone have a picture of this memo or the memo itself? Where is it? Does anyone have a recording or transcript of Trump telling the Russians anything specific? Putin has actually stated that he would release the entire transcript if Trump said it was ok.

The point is news agencies reporting something as fact without having any actual hard evidence.

He said / she said is not evidence.

Watching the election cycle this year and what is happening now is hilarious. None of those people know that God planned it all to happen including all the lies.

Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Deuteronomy 32
39: "`See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

 

[Hank77]

So, there's the Trump gave the Russians classified info thing. So what? The President has the authority to declassify anything he wants to.

Did he declassify information? If so then whatever he MAY have disclosed to them that was classified is now unclassified and is available information to anyone files a FOIA request.


If it is not declassified and available under the FOIA then the question is, can the President reveal sensitive classified information to anyone he chooses to? That is a whole different question.

 

[Hank77]

The only illegal act that happened was that someone who was in the room told someone else or told the news. Either of those is illegal.

Seeing that the only people allowed in the room were Russians and they don't fall under our legal system....

 

[StevenBelievin]

So we have the crooked media, the crooked democrats, the crooked republicans, the crooked 1% cronies, the crooked lobbyists, the crooked globalists who just wanna fill their pockets all jumping on Trump. Creating big smoke screens where nothing is really there. What this really is all about is the oligarchy wanting to get him out so that a crooked politician who can be bought off will be in office and continue on with their globalist agenda. Hillary was already in their pocket. If Trump gets ousted then the next guy will be in their pocket if he isn't already. Trump isn't a politician and he already has his own money. He can't be bought. That drives the powers that be crazy to not have their hands on the wheel.

 

[sfs]

So, there's the Trump gave the Russians classified info thing. So what? The President has the authority to declassify anything he wants to.

I don't recall any officials or pundits suggesting that what Trump did was illegal -- just that it was deeply stupid and harmful to American interests.

 

[StevenBelievin]

Seeing that the only people allowed in the room were Russians and they don't fall under our legal system....

You really think he was alone in the room with them and no one else was there?

 

[Hank77]

You really think he was alone in the room with them and no one else was there?

There was Trump and some of his admin. from my understanding. His admin. are his people that are loyal to him. They are not the same as the US press, members of Congress, or national security people.
Do you know others that were present?

 

[miamited]

Hi SB,

You wrote:

The point is news agencies reporting something as fact without having any actual hard evidence.

He said / she said is not evidence.

That's true. However, not all news reporting is about proven cold hard facts. A lot of it is investigative and the purpose is to get questions answered. To point out possible incongruities in high level wheelings and dealings.

In the Nixon Watergate scandal, when it first came to light, there weren't a lot of the facts that we finally ended up with. However, journalists talked to people and read reports and listened to taped discussions and investigated some of the claims and it then became a scandal once further facts were uncovered. That's the job of investigative journalists. They listen to scuttlebutt and if it seems to concern reasonably important issues and possible improprieties, then they file a report with their editor who checks all the facts of the story and decides to run it or not. The claims supporting the story are factual. That some person said that such and such a thing was happening. Whether the initial claims do actually turn out to be the whole truth of the matter is yet to be found out. That's the job of investigative journalists.

If they're doing their jobs, then the things that are reported to them, even if the overall claims turn out to not be true, are reported facts that they received from the testimony that they were given. That's the job of investigative journalists.

In this situation, when the investigative journalists raise the questions and report the possible going on, and then the subject of those matters seems to try and quash legal testimony and fire everyone under them that may be under some sort of suspicion, then the issue gains even more credibility as possibly being true. However, we won't any of us, other than the parties involved, really know the truth until a full investigation is done.

That's the way investigative journalism works and it's the way it has worked for centuries. Erin Brockovich was a woman who got a journalists attention and made some unfounded claims about pollution that was causing medical havoc in a community. She started off making claims that were as yet unfounded and the power companies creating the pollution were completely denying that they were doing anything wrong. If it weren't for the investigative journalist who decided that there might be something to her claims, the issue may never have been uncovered. It's how investigative journalism works.

The Watergate scandal started off with one person telling an investigative journalist that something was going on that people didn't know about. At the time the journalist was first given the information, it was all unfounded and unproven claims. It's how investigative journalism works.

God bless you,
In Christ, ted

 

[HannahT]

The Watergate scandal started off with one person telling an investigative journalist that something was going on that people didn't know about. At the time the journalist was first given the information, it was all unfounded and unproven claims. It's how investigative journalism works.

I remember Watergate, and it was terrible!

Today's journalists for the most part aren't really like those of the past. News isn't either. It's really sad.

News is suppose to inform, and allow you the wiggle room to process it...and then come to some of your own conclusions. Today, its whomever finds something and rushes to get it out there - true or not. Then talk it to death. Whip people up, and sit back and watch what happens.

When the media sees what way the wind blows from people's reactions? They know which direction to go on air to keep their ratings up. The more dramatic the better. Everything is terrible, and end of world stuff. Is it any wonder our young people need safe spaces due to the anxiety this constant drama causes? Heck, they never have time to breath before they whip people UP over the next - sometime - story. Then you have people that are numb to the news today, because they don't trust them. They saw how many 'investigative' stories turned out to be nothing, and how every stupid comment that a politician made was plastered all over the news cycle...sometimes for DAYS!!

It's sad, because there is news and stuff going on all over this country. Heck, the WORLD! Notice they hardly touch on that stuff? That's NOT doing their job. I'm so disappointed at the news today. The world has the right to know - has taken on a whole new meaning. Today? Its whatever small piece of gossip we can find that might help us keep on top. We might touch on some other relevant stuff, but the juicy stuff is a must! They have been doing this for years now.

Notice also they have lower poll numbers than congress, and when that is reported? They whine and complain about how that isn't fair. This was happening prior to Trump, because Fake News was a reality. lol something they STILL whine about today. Gossip isn't news. It just isn't.

Within the last week we got a section of a memo from Comey - allegedly. Although I have no doubt the man said something along those lines. We have no context, nor the whole of the conversation. Anything can look bad, and there is a possibility it is. Yet, we don't have enough to know that. "Investigative' journalism today already has the hangman ready to go, and people thinking the world has come to an end. Heck, they even bent the statements in the memo to say something it doesn't. Now, if you ask me if it is news? Yes, they need to report on that. They also need to point out that it may not have all the information needed to make a judgement, and it was also read to them...and we don't know if the 'source' made it more appealing by juicing it up. They really don't have much there, and yet for DAYS on end they speculate on it. Scaring people to death. They are more drama experts than journalists.

Today our journalists make everything into Watergate. That's how it works today. People won't know when something is serious, because today everything is. Sigh.

 

[miamited]

Hi hannah,

You wrote:

Today's journalists for the most part aren't really like those of the past. News isn't either. It's really sad.

I don't agree with your assessment. However, it is true that there are a lot supposed sources of information out there today that we didn't have so much of and that aren't particularly reliable. But, investigative journalists working for reputable news agencies are pretty much still held to the same standard of proving their claims as much as they ever were.

What you do have today that you didn't have years before are the 'sensationalist' news promoters. Alex Jones is one of the most vociferous. Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are overhyped to present biased impressions on events, which may cause a manipulation to the truth of a story. Another thing that has changed is that we have become a people that largely agrees with and seeks out these types of news sources. When you listen to these people on the radio or TV you become enraged and emotional and you don't separate out the actual facts that are being reported with the emotion and innuendo and side commentary that is being offered up with the few facts that are actually being reported, if any are.

However, your run of the mill city newspaper and your CNN, MSNBC investigative journalist pieces are generally much more calm and subdued and when they attach some possible result of an action, they make it clear that it is some 'possible' result. Your sensationalist editorial presenter will tell you that some outcome is going to happen. It's presented to you with much rage and yelling and theatrics. One can, if they choose, separate the good from the bad reporting.

Listening to the 'sensationist' news promoters is like getting your news from the op/ed responses in most newspapers. It's full of personal bias and fear and hate and half truths or no truths. What we have today that we didn't have many years ago are people who are gullible enough to believe such tripe is actually responsible news reporting. I think that if we read Paul's condemnation against the actions of mankind in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, it's pretty easy to see that Paul was correct.

God bless you,
In Christ, ted

 

[HannahT]

Sensationalism is the norm today. You can get it on all networks - including the two you mentioned. I can handle CNN at times, but MSNBC? No. To much of that on there for my tastes.

Sadly, you have to go to many news outlets to get the whole story. You can't rely on one or two, but have to go searching today to find anything truly decent. Most of it is junk, and speculation.

Yes, people are gullible today. Yet, they go out of their way to whip people UP in order to feed that. They are responsible for driving the hate in order to make money. They should be ashamed.

I'm no Trump fan, and I didn't care for Obama either. Yet, both were targeted - and still are - for really stupid stuff with no back up. The average Joe on the street believes it too. The networks are using the sensationalism to keep their ratings up, and make their organization money. The title of the articles on their sites? They are used for clickbait, because once you read the article? It doesn't back up the headlines.

Sure you can find some decent pieces of information, but you shouldn't have to HUNT them down. When you have to hunt them down? It gets frustrating, and the average Joe isn't going to do that. The networks know that, and they play on it.

Its a sad time in history when you have search for decent journalism, and not be able to find it readily.

 

[miamited]

Sensationalism is the norm today. You can get it on all networks - including the two you mentioned. I can handle CNN at times, but MSNBC? No. To much of that on there for my tastes.

Sadly, you have to go to many news outlets to get the whole story. You can't rely on one or two, but have to go searching today to find anything truly decent. Most of it is junk, and speculation.

Yes, people are gullible today. Yet, they go out of their way to whip people UP in order to feed that. They are responsible for driving the hate in order to make money. They should be ashamed.

I'm no Trump fan, and I didn't care for Obama either. Yet, both were targeted - and still are - for really stupid stuff with no back up. The average Joe on the street believes it too. The networks are using the sensationalism to keep their ratings up, and make their organization money. The title of the articles on their sites? They are used for clickbait, because once you read the article? It doesn't back up the headlines.

Sure you can find some decent pieces of information, but you shouldn't have to HUNT them down. When you have to hunt them down? It gets frustrating, and the average Joe isn't going to do that. The networks know that, and they play on it.

Its a sad time in history when you have search for decent journalism, and not be able to find it readily.

Hi hannah,

I agree with much of what you've written. However, as a believer I don't necessarily see it as a sad time in history so much as it is a foretold time to come of the future and, therefore, means that Jesus is nearer to the door.

Events and human nature are actually falling into place pretty much the way we've been told that they would. So, while the world runs amok, going to and fro full of fear and anxiety, the born again believer understands that this is all working out just as we were told it would. How bad will it get? I can't honestly answer that. But as bad as it is now, and Jesus hasn't returned, I know it will get worse. I know that there is coming a time of real persecution against the children of God. I know that there is coming a time when the whole world will follow after one that they believe will save the world. I know that things are only going to get worse and not better.

How do I know all this? Because of what Paul wrote to the Romans in his opening statements. I know that we are going to become a world where men and women have given up the natural sexual relations and to fill their own fleshly desires will be inflamed with lust for their own gender. I know that the people of the world will be filled with every kind of wickedness. They will be evil, greedy and depraved. They will be filled with envy, murder, strife and deceit. They will be filled with all sorts of malice for one another and be unending gossips. I know that they will be slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. I know that we are just now beginning to see all the ways that mankind will invent for doing evil. I know that children will greatly disobey their parents. I know that the people of the world will not have any understanding or fidelity or love or mercy. I know that all of these attitudes such as those listed above will only continue to grow more and more prevalent and worse as we march inexorably to the day that our Lord will come to take those who are his, home.

So, we have to live through these days. Holding firmly to our faith and trying as best we can to stay out of and above the fray, but we won't be untouched by it. As the Scriptures tell us, we must live in the world, but we must also not live as the world.

God bless you,
In Christ, ted

 

[Yarddog]

So, there's the Trump gave the Russians classified info thing. So what? The President has the authority to declassify anything he wants to. The only illegal act that happened was that someone who was in the room told someone else or told the news. Either of those is illegal.

Why would it be illegal for someone to leak what occurred if Trump declassified the info he shared with the Russians?

 

[ViaCrucis]

The freedom of the press is one of the bedrock principles of a free and democratic society. The alternative is tyranny.

-CryptoLutheran