I completely unplugged from television news years ago, but I understand that television is leaning pretty heavily on Twitter these days for news coming out of Iran. That’s interesting, but it’s good to keep in mind that the unfiltered news is not necessarily reliable. Mark Ambinder wants us to treat Twitter the way a CIA analyst would, and I think it’s a skill we’re all going to need regardless of the situation or the medium. Even before the Civil War a lie could travel halfway around the world before the truth got its boots on. Now it happens before the truth can even find its socks.
That’s not to say what’s coming out of Iran is a lie. Or even true. But it’s people’s emotions, street rumor, hearsay, propaganda—maybe even potential misinformation. So we should all take a few moments to upgrade our bullshit detectors.
I’m with Fred on this: journalism is serious work, requiring real effort and training. It plays a critical role not only in our democracy but in our daily health and well-being. So it’s disappointing to read things like this:
Why is Al Sharpton on my teevee talking to Geraldo Rivera about Iran? LGM: Befuddled
Why indeed? In fact, why is the news reading Twitter on the air? I understand it may be difficult to do real journalism in Iran at the moment, but real journalism is often difficult. If you can’t get the sources, maybe you could talk about the background for a bit. Give people some context. There are maybe half a dozen people in the United States who understand Iranian politics, and none of them are Al Sharpton or Geraldo.
I have not been keeping up with the news in Iran. I don’t trust the Twitter news feed and I don’t have the proper background to have a functioning bullshit detector. I would like to rely on traditional news sources, but they’ve all been gutted for profit and replaced with News-Like Entertainment Substitute.
Also, I have a toddler who makes it difficult to concentrate on anything for more than thirty minutes. My thirty minutes is up. Sorry if this isn’t coherent. Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.
Either on the news or the toddler.
You are right that they shouldn’t be reading Twitter to us—and we would be able to read and understand these unfiltered comments better if they would give us some background.