RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Fake media !This is a fantastic post from Yasch. If you missed it, please read it.
BTW, thanks, Yasch, for pointing out my mistake regarding what Trump did or did not say about his motive for running as a Republican.
Yasch22 wrote: All news stations take sides on social and political issues. That's a normal thing. It's an honorable thing. Right, left, and center should be able to discuss important policies without resorting to the threat of violence. Violence starts with name-calling, because it makes opponents less than human, less equal. It also solidifies opponents into boxes where compromise or civil debate is impossible. Next in line come the fists, the sticks, the bullets.
News becomes fake when it deliberately lies or prevents stakeholders with differing points of view from telling their views. Politicians become fake when they deliberately tell lies -- and when they call out reporters for asking questions about those lies.
Let's honour CNN for its vigorous fact-checking, even to the point of declaring some of the juiciest anti-Trump stories to be false. Let's honour Fox News for daring to challenge the Trump cult, even if they didn't do so until the final year of its reign. Let's honour Fox, CNN and all the news stations that rigorously and regularly invited speakers from both political parties.
The same situation applies to this forum about BlackBerry. We get fake bulls (pumpers) and much more often fake bears, or guys whose only interest is to create fear, uncertainty and doubt. The tell-tale markers are focus on falling share price (as opposed to actual analysis of numbers), name-calling ("bagholder," etc.), and ominous warnings that the sp is going to fall or to fall even further without explaining why. The discussions all too often start out with ordinary investors trying to be reasonable, while the FUDsters never give an inch.
But the ultimate result achieved when FUDsters drag supporters into nasty arguments is this: it destroys the very idea of useful and productive discussion. Investors will just drop out.
In the political realm, the ultimate goal of all the attacks on "fake news" is to destroy the idea that there can be productive debate in a democracy between opponents. That's the highway to dictatorships, which are equally bad whether they're communist or fascist.