{"id":30782,"date":"2017-05-14T18:43:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=30782"},"modified":"2017-05-14T18:44:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:44:13","slug":"listen-up-8-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/listen-up-8-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up!  Do you trust the media?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5890\" style=\"width: 211px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5890\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5890\" src=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/10\/HM-0020-2-Profile-picture-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/10\/HM-0020-2-Profile-picture-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/10\/HM-0020-2-Profile-picture.jpg 321w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hugh Mackenzie<br \/>Huntsville Doppler<\/p><\/div>\n<p>These days, when it comes to politics and the media, it is difficult to know what is normal any more. What is fake news? What is ethical reporting and who is controlling whom? It\u2019s like a fast game of tennis, and my neck gets sore watching the ball whiz back and forth.<\/p>\n<p>There were two instances of media suppression last week that got little attention given everything else that was going on in Washington. The first was a meeting between President Trump, the Russian Ambassador to the United States and Russia\u2019s Foreign Minister. This took place in the wake of the firing of FBI Director James Comey and in the face of a Congressional and FBI investigation into ties between the Russians and Trump associates. Astonishingly, the American media were banned from this meeting but the Russian media was welcomed by Trump with open arms. (The Russians embarrassed Trump after the meeting, by releasing information directly to the U.S. media when their own President would not.)<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>The second instance is a threat by President Trump to ban the daily White House Briefings that have been an institution for decades. The President does not like to be held accountable. He is unhappy with aides who, try as they do, cannot adequately defend the lies, contradictions and flip flops that come so frequently from the White House.<\/p>\n<p>Both of these issues were an attempt to control the media, and the question that arises for me from that is, does it really matter? Do we still value freedom of the Press? Do we really care?<\/p>\n<p>For most of my adult life I have viewed the media as an important tool to force transparency and accountability. Freedom of the Press has always been synonymous with a free society. The media can be a giant pain in the ass, especially if you hold public office, but never the less, at their worst, the are a necessary evil.<\/p>\n<p>There are those however, who see the media, especially national media, as a large part of the problem. They are seen by some, to take sides, to slant the news toward a particular partisan point of view and indeed, to create fake news. News networks appear to see themselves as part of the political process and they attempt to influence public opinion. They seek power and they thrive on it.<\/p>\n<p>Consequently, recent polling has shown that much of the public has lost confidence in the media. Who then can they trust, to hold elected officials accountable, to dig deeper, to get the facts and to uncover genuine wrong doing? Is it any wonder we shake our heads at what is going on and question who is telling the truth?<\/p>\n<p>We live in a topsy turvy world. In my view, there has seldom been a time when the integrity of the fifth estate has been more important. Journalism was once an honourable profession. I am not sure it is any more. And that to me, is a shame.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free, twice-weekly newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/dont-miss-out-on-doppler\/\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These days, when it comes to politics and the media, it is difficult to know what is normal any more. What is fake news? What is ethical reporting and who [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[442,829],"class_list":["post-30782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-hugh-mackenzie","tag-listen-up"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Listen Up! Do you trust the media?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it comes to the media, it is difficult to know what is normal any more. What is fake news? 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