Accuracy in the Media

The majority of the people in the world know that what you read in the newspaper you have to take with a pinch of salt. What i mean by  taking it with a pinch of salt is that you cannot always believe what is written in a news paper. Journalists are supposed to find out the truth but we all know they will write stuff just to sell papers. I am always reading stories that sound to be not 100% truthful and sometimes wonder where they get their information from. In some cases when the paper is forced to apologize about a false story they publish, the article will only be about an inch or two in size saying a woeful apology, when the damage that is caused is probably a lot worse. The news media don’t always get their stories right and many of them don’t even seem to care. By advising them is their responsibility to the public, whom they claim to serve.

Out of the options I was given I wanted to chose this topic as it has always interested me.There is a paper back in England called "THE SUN" which everyone knows doesnt always tell the truth in all their stories, but the stories they get are so interesting that many people read the paper and believe the stories as though it is 100% truthful. I have always been curious when reading an article how a journalist got so much information for that particular story when it seems he was just in the right place at the right time. 
When i was given a list of options for what topic to write about and research, i umped straight onto this topic without given a second thought for the other topics as I felt this is something that will always interest people.

The Article below is from www.thesun.co.uk, with the head of the newspaper apologising for an incident that happend a few years back during a soccer match where fans were killed. The paper printed false lies about what happened and its only recently in the last month that the real truth has come out and people and papers are being found out.

The website i chose was:
http://www.aim.org

This was their missions statement from their site:

Accuracy in Media is a citizens’ media watchdog whose mission is to promote accuracy, fairness and balance in news reporting. AIM exposes politically motivated media bias; teaches consumers to think critically about their news sources; and holds the mainstream press accountable for its misreporting.It is a non profit , citizens watch dog for news media that critiques wrongfully written news stories and sets the record straight for the public.


In 1998 The American society of newspapers published a study that showed 78% of Americans felt that their news was Biased. This is where ACCURACY IN MEADIA ( AIM) came in to try and get the media to report the news fairly and objectively, with out resorting to bias reports.


"Accuracy in Media was founded in 1969 by a group of concerned citizens, led by economist Reed Irvine, who were troubled by the inaccuracies and one-sidedness they saw in the American media.  Frustrated by the media’s unwillingness to address their individual concerns, they banded together to form Accuracy in Media, hoping that an organization would have more clout than individuals in getting the media to correct serious errors".             ( http://www.aim.org/about/history-of-aim/ )

AIM brings attention to this problem with the media by: 
Publishing a twice-monthly newsletter 
Broadcasting a daily radio commentary 
Syndicates a weekly newspaper column 
Attend major news media meetings to express the problems and faults of the media being published

I think this is good what AIM is doing to help spread their views and findings about false news being published to the general public. I am sure they are trying to get themselves out there more in the near future, but i feel the news letters and broadcasting daily radio commentary helps get themselves out there and get the public aware of what is being written in certain stories is untrue.



Below are two articles I read about Obama. The first is explaining how Obama is blaming the movie for all the violence when in fact terrorism is still at large and hasn't been stopped like it was said to have been. 
The second article is explaining about a second video made about Obama and the friendship he had with a man suspected by the FBI of being a soviet spy.

On the Letterman show, President Barack Obama once again blamed Middle East violence on a movie, adding that he was concerned about the “shadowy character” behind it. That “shadowy character” was picked up by the police, acting on behalf of the federal government, in order to begin the process of appeasing Islamic censors around the world who want to destroy our First Amendment rights.

Blaming a movie shifts the attention away from the fact that al-Qaeda is behind the violence and that Osama bin-Laden’s death hasn’t affected the global terrorist war against

Although the Associated Press and ABC’s Nightline program have taken apart Dinesh D’Souza’s film, “2016: Obama’s America,” another film about the President is strangely getting the silent treatment from the major media. This film, “Dreams from My Real Father,” explores in detail the relationship that Obama had with Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party member suspected by the FBI to be a Soviet agent.

I wanted to add these clips showing examples of where the media has written false news and where the AIM has gone and found out the truth. The first story is very interesting as I have heard it a lot on many papers, where important political figures feel very confident that with the fall of Bin Laden, that terrorism has now fallen, but that is far from the truth, as we all know terrorism will always be a major problem. I feel it is something said to make people probably like that person or maybe earn them another term in office.
The other article is telling of the films made about Obama. The first film was looked at but not taken very seriously, but the other film showing important details about Obama's friendship with a suspected soviet agent has hardly got any coverage which makes me feel like some one in high authority has made a few phone calls to big people in news telling them not to talk much about it. 

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-other-anti-obama-film/






I struggled to load a video but I found this video on youtube which was a representative from MIA saying how media is now becoming an enemy of the American people.

http://www.youtube.com/user/aimaccuracy?feature=results_main


I feel that Media in Accuracy is a very good company and punishment should be handed out to news companies and journalist who print false news. Like AIM stated, if a lawyer lies, they can be jailed for contempt in court. A surgeon who messes up an operation can lose his license. A corporation that falsifies reports can face serious troubles with the SEC. However, a journalist doesn’t have to surrender his press card for faulty reporting. And the reason a journalist can get away with this is because of the first amendment act. I feel this needs to be looked at and maybe tweaked in order to prevent such media lies breaking out into the news and maybe put the reins on the media as it seems they have the free will to right what they want with little or no discipline.