“Maybe there should be a kind of ‘truth squad’ segment on news shows in which we pick the whopper of the day and dissect it.”

That was some talking head during a conversation with Rachel Maddow about politicians making up “facts” whole-cloth and how the media should combat that when it happens.

Once upon a time, the news media was the “truth squad” and fact checked everything they reported, no matter who said it. I quite clearly remember a time in my life when journalists –both TV and newspaper journalists– would report the facts of a matter and refute the lies or untrue/misleading statements of anyone public enough to make them and be heard widely, even if those people were politicians. It wasn’t that long ago. But now, it seems as though just about no one fact checks anything, they either get their talking points from whatever masters they have or they simply report whatever everyone is reporting without giving a thought to whether it is true or not.

One of the examples in the Rachel Maddow segment^† was the latest announcement about the military budget. The budget itself is going up 4%, and yet what was the story coming from the major TV news networks (and the mouths of politicians)? Drastic military budget cuts! Sure some things that are over-budget, outdated, and otherwise a waste of money are being cut, but the budget itself is not being cut at all. It’s going up! All the same, all the talking heads have themselves in a lather about the “slashing” of the military budget^††. Either no one is paying attention to the facts or none of them can read or hear English and comprehend it.

So the media needs to have a “truth squad” huh? I thought the media was supposed to BE a truth squad and fact check things before running off at the mouth (or pen) about things. How about instead of having a segment on the news programs dissecting some “whopper” of the day the journalists do what they are supposed to be doing and dissect these whoppers as they find them while fact checking their reports!

I know, I know. I am asking for far too much. Who has time to fact check something before rushing to the air or internet with some juicy and outrage-filled story! Who cares if it’s 100% true or not! Someone may beat us in reporting it!

I blame it all on the advent of 24 hour news programming. With all that time to fill, and a desire for every minute of it to be breaking hot news and entertaining on top of it all, who has the time to bother with things like facts?

1. † The Rachel Maddow segment can be watched here. [↩]
2. †† The Daily Show did a hilarious segment on the military budget which can be watched here. [↩]