5 Ways to Spot a BS Political Story in Under 10 Seconds

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by FactChecker, May 2, 2012.

  1. FactChecker

    FactChecker New Member

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    #5. The Headline Contains the Word "Gaffe"

    See, in this game, your "team" scores a point each time the other team says something stupid. It lets all of the supporters of your team mock and humiliate the supporters of the opposing team, on Internet message boards and around water coolers and in coffee shops nationwide. "Haha! The supposed 'genius' Obama thinks there are 57 states in the U.S.!" "Oh, yeah? Well, your last president said he was going to help terrorists plan their next attack!"

    And it never ends, because if your "team" gives up a gaffe, then you need to dig one up on the other side to even the score. So, last month the Romney campaign was embarrassed when an adviser came off like he was comparing his own candidate to an Etch A Sketch toy. Thus, this month the Romney campaign had to jump on an Obama adviser's gaffe that came off like she was saying that stay-at-home moms don't do work. And on and on it goes.

    #4. The Headline Ends in a Question Mark

    A news story so questionable the publication literally felt the need to mark it as such.

    #3. The Headline Contains the Word "Blasts"

    Politics isn't always a sport. Sometimes it's a schoolyard face-off where all of the press gathers around the arguing kids in a circle, chanting, "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" In politics, of course, they don't punch each other, they "blast" each other with words. And I mean it's almost always described that way.

    What does it mean to you? It means a politician publicly disagrees with the opposing party in a completely expected way that changes nothing about the political landscape or national policy whatsoever. When they get tired of "blasts," sometimes they'll mix things up with "rips" or "lashes out at" or "unloads on," but usually "blasts" is the go-to word.

    These stories are, as you can see, just as content-free as the "gaffe" stories. But they are popular for the same reason: There's a petty, tribal satisfaction in seeing a member of our team really put the other team in their place. And there's a rush of outrage adrenaline when the other team says something mean about us. So, instead of covering pending legislation or the impact it could have on your life, the news media covers the dick-measuring contest.

    #2. The Headline Is About a "Lawmaker" Saying Something Stupid

    A low-level politician with no power said something incredibly stupid, and the opposing party is trumpeting it from the mountaintops to make everyone in the low-level politician's party look stupid.

    See, headlines tend to use that word "lawmaker" for a reason -- if he were a U.S. senator, by God it would say "U.S. Senator," and if he were a member of Congress, it'd say he was a congressman. They use "lawmaker" because it makes him seem prominent, like he should somehow matter to people who don't live in Kansas.

    #1. The Headline Includes the Phrase "Blow To"

    A slowdown in U.S. jobs growth deals a blow to Obama? How about the millions of people who are out of work? Hey, guys, I don't know if you realize this, but the world actually exists. Those numbers on the screen represent actual humans who are actually suffering. No, really! It's not a video game! Come down to my home town, I have a neighborhood I want to show you. Bring your meth money!

    And, as smarter commentators have pointed out, there's an even bigger problem with this: It actually implies that the issue itself is completely unimportant. For instance, if the courts overturn some regulation about mercury in the water or Congress blocks car mileage standards, it always gets reported as "A Blow to Environmentalists."

    Oh, no, it's not a blow to the people who have to drink the water or breathe the air, or the taxpayers who have to fund the regulations, or the businesses that lose jobs over it. It's either a "blow to environmentalists" or it's not. They specifically make it sound like the effects extend purely to some fringe special interest group and absolutely no one else.

    It's not only following the issue as a horse race/fight/reality show, it's actively prohibiting you from seeing it any other way. After all, if the building were really on fire, somebody would be telling me to evacuate. They wouldn't be calmly speculating about how this fire alarm is going to be a "blow to" the landlord. Not unless the person giving me the news had gone completely freaking insane.

    http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-spot-b.s.-political-story-in-under-10-seconds/

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    This isn't the full article, but just excerpts, to illustrate the point. Find examples from all over the forum. Then, do the harder things. 1) Let them die. 2) Don't post them yourself.
     
  2. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    Yours is a thought-provoking thread, and so it probably won't get much notice in this forum. But, yes, "word-smithing", propaganda, exaggeration, distortion, and outright lying are all part of the "trench-warfare" politics that this country, and this forum, calls "discussion". Each faction believes in its own propaganda while excoriating all others for theirs. It is wearisome and predictable, but ultimately we will be reunited, sort of, if only because of our enduring, and increasing poverty, and the coming outbreak of medium-scale warfare throughout the world.
     
  3. discovery721

    discovery721 New Member

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    YES! I love cracked! I read this article yesterday and thought it would be perfect for this forum.
     
  4. Daybreaker

    Daybreaker Well-Known Member

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    That's a really good article. Awesome.
     
  5. fifthofnovember

    fifthofnovember Well-Known Member

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    Wow, I have seen a lot of articles on the cracked site, and most are really good, but this is absolutely the best and most profound I have ever seen. All of the posters on this site who mindlessly cheerlead their team, the ones with names like Liberalkilla and Democrat4life (Can't use their actual screen names, but you know the ones I mean) need to read every word of this article, believe it, and live it.
     
  6. peoplevsmedia

    peoplevsmedia Banned

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    I agree, and there's more...
     
  7. FactChecker

    FactChecker New Member

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  8. Ivan88

    Ivan88 Well-Known Member

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    Try this one:
    everything_lie.jpg
    It's kinda like what George Wallace said, "There's not a dime's worth of difference between them."
     
  9. darckriver

    darckriver New Member Past Donor

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    What percentage of threads are started for no other reason than to try to make those folks with whom the poster disagrees look like idiots? The notorious abuse of statistics in political "debate" is a good example of methodology. This may be amusing at times, but it's also pretty tiresome. Does anyone else get irritated every month as both sides grope for how to "use" the jobless figures and other economic indicators to show that things are either getting rosy or we're on the verge of an apocalyptic collapse? Geesh! This approach isn't just used at PF and other forums, either. Anyone thinks that MSNBC and FoxNews does't diligently dumpster dive for their own agenda-driven tidbits they can use to either prop up their own conclusions or, more than likely, smear the opposition's, while trying to pass them off as legitimate "news", needs a brain transplant.
     
  10. FactChecker

    FactChecker New Member

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    In 1960 it was about 50% pointless, 50% relevant.

    Today, it is about 17% relevant, 83% pointless.

    (From news sources, at least.)
     

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