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Should professional journalists report the facts without personal embellishments of their own political beliefs. Perhaps it's me, but I personally don't like to be told what to think. I find it difficult to find factual reporting on the internet and getting the full side of the story.

 

It seems overnight anyone with a computer working from their bedroom can become a freelance journalist. Social media such as facebook, twitter, a good network of friends perhaps a website,some blogs and an odd utube posting soon puts anybody in business.

 

I like to be given the facts only then left alone to decide for myself, if I already know a journalists view on something this distorts everything. Another thing I question should I be listening to the views of western journalists on how Thailands political crises should be solved if I believe their own preconceptions are not giving a balanced view.

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Actually, TheCorinthian, it most certainly is possible.

 

Reporting the facts without embellishing them with one's personal beliefs was one of the core tenets of journalism for decades. Opinions were relegated and restricted to the Editorial page, and the editors enforced that policy vigorously.

 

At least in the United States.

 

At one point, in elementary school, I took a summer program in journalism. "Just the facts" in a news story was one of the first things the teacher told us, and she made it absolutely clear that she was serious. Later, it was explained, in history class, that journalists were trusted to report the news ONLY because of that policy.

 

Today, of course, journalists feel free to embellish, and they feel free to bury things that don't match the agenda. Is it any wonder nobody trusts them to tell the truth any more?

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I dabbled in journalism for a few years, and I was taught to report the facts and keep my personal opinions out of it. Even subjective adjectives were forbidden. Unfortunately, that has fallen by the wayside. I remember back when Clinton was President that a survey of Washington reporters showed that the majority felt a journalist's duty was to "influence public opinion"! That's not a journalist, it's a propagandist. :(

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Al Jazeera is remarkably more impartial towards Israel than both CNN and BBC.

 

I do like watching the English Channel on CCTV, (China Central Television) CCTV-9 banned in Vietnam which makes it more fun to watch hehe.

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A tangent. I get CNN amongst others. When the docco series 'cold war' starts the whole channel is stopped and replaced by Vietnamese script. It goes back to CNN when the docco is over.

 

So CNN is fed to Laos from VN

 

They Censor

 

VN is sensitive about USSR vs USA

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Thai news used to be bizarre in the 1980s. You would get western news reports with Thai dialogue over them. Sometimes you could hear enough of the English to realise that the Thai version didn't match the English version. :)

 

p.s. A former colleague from Dalat once asked me what the war was all about. (He was only about 5 when Hanoi conquered the South.) Hanoi had moved many families down to keep an eye on the southerners, and he said the children of both northern and southern families would talk about the war and try to understand why their parents had been killing each other. The southern parents would tell their kids one story, and the northern parents another. (People forget that the war had been going on long before the US, Oz, South Korea, Thailand, NZ etc got involved in it ... and it continued after they all left. It was essentially a war between the Vietnamese themselves.) He said China is the traditional enemy and Vietnam has fought China in almost every generation. Still, for about 20 years the Vietnamese were killing each other in large numbers. I told him the Cold War was the answer. The Soviets supported all communist movements, and US opposed them wherever they were. If Ho Chi Minh et al. had not been communists, the VN War would not have happened. Vietnam wouldn't have been divided, and there would be no rival governments. One can say the same thing about Korea. :(

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