Is the world alright? - NOT amateur radio

Most mornings we watch BBC Breakfast with news every 30 minutes. Yesterday they spent ages on the photo for Mother's Day by the Princess of Wales. Today, we had lots about pet insurance.

Meanwhile, we have conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and elsewhere. These were not even mentioned! Switching to Al Jazeera we heard plenty about the rest of the world.

Now Al Jazeera is biased, but just listening to the BBC, one could be forgiven for believing all is well with the world.

Sorry, but the only way to get news is to get it from multiple sources and not just one.

The fog of war - NOT amateur radio

Recently I have been watching different news TV sites trying to get a balanced view of things. It is very noticeable that different outlets emphasise different things. 

In the "fog of war" it is very hard to get to the facts. All sides tend to stress what they want you to believe.

The best we can do is get the news from various sources, make our own minds up, and don't believe all we hear.

Media fascism

In the UK media for several days a headline has been about an ITV presenter, who happens to be gay. The lives of him and his family have been a total hell. On the BBC news it has been the very first item.  Had it been a heterosexual affair nobody would care.

In my view this is despicable.  He and his family should be left alone.

As far as we know, he had done nothing wrong or newsworthy. Just leave him alone and get off his back.

In my view, this is journalism of the very worst kind: superficial and gratuitous gossip. BBC, get back to real news please!!! 

So called "facts" - NOT amateur radio

Recently I have seen adverts on Facebook about famous people who are reported to have died. All these turn out to be untrue. Apparently it is called "clickbait" designed to make you click the link, no doubt to then try to download something nasty to your computer. I have "shared" news items in all good faith only to find out later that they are not factually correct. In this age of "post-truth" news, one has to be very careful. Do not take things at face value!

See http://www.snopes.com/category/facts/

Southgate News

Although they pick up stuff from all over the place, this is worth checking out regularly.

See http://southgatearc.org/ .

Southgate News

Most days I take a look at Southgate News as they usually have things of interest. Sometimes the content takes news items from other sources, but usually I find something of interest.

Ebola - NOT amateur radio

Certainly here in the UK, and I suspect the USA, Ebola went out of the news late last year.  Although the West African outbreak was the worst on record, it is sad that it soon became not newsworthy. It looks like the outbreak is now under control but it is a sad indictment of our society that when things go "off the radar" we hear little about them. It is a warning that what is considered "news" is filtered.

As Steve G1KQH mentions in the comments there are always new deadly viruses to be worried about. Back in the 1950s it was polio, although thankfully that was largely beaten in the 1950s. Sadly it is still endemic in a few nations because of ignorance and politics.