Re: News, print in particular. (OT)

I received a BA in journalism from the U of Maryland in 1970 while a photographer in the Air Force. After Vietnam, I was an instructor in the Air Force photography school in Denver. One of the modules in the 18 week course was photojournalism. I did a two week exercise with my students. First week I had them shoot photos, write an article, and captions. They had to make a double truck (two page spread), they could do it on any subject they choose, but they had to make it look good. At the end of the week I would critique their work with the group. When we were done, I told them the second week they were to do the same story again, but this time make it look bad. By the way they shot the photos, wrote the captions, and text they learned they could distort the story. Most of the students were flabbergasted when they put the two projects side by side. I had many students say to me that after this they could not believe the news in the media as they knew it could be distorted. I told them that is what I wanted them to learn. Most people are not good consumers of news media as they do not know it can be twisted, distorted, spun according to the bias of the journalist. It happens on both sides of the political spectrum, but my observation as a journalist is the left does it MUCH, MUCH more than the right.