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**Maxmars** · 08-21-2024, 06:34 PM

Once again, the proof is in the pudding...

A PBS anchor pushed the story that Donald Trump had spoken to Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him to delay any hostage negotiations until it was politically beneficial for his campaign.

Of course, the media didn't 'fact check' it, instead they ran with the story, inserting it into the public discourse...

From Fox: PBS host apologizes for reporting Trump pressed Netanyahu to abandon hostage deal: 'This was a mistake'
Subtitled: Netanyahu's office called report a 'complete lie'

"PBS NewsHour" anchor Judy Woodruff apologized Wednesday for reporting a story about former President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that both leaders have staunchly denied.

Woodruff posted an apology to X expressing regret for reporting this week that in a phone call, Trump urged Netanyahu to delay a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas until after the 2024 presidential election to benefit him politically.

"This was a mistake and I apologize for it," Woodruff wrote.

A mistake... a regrettable report... sorry... oops!. It's Axios and Reuter's fault!

She posted, "I want to clarify my remarks on the PBS News special on Monday night about the ongoing cease fire talks in the Middle East. As I said, this was not based on my original reporting; I was referring to reports I had read, in Axios and Reuters, about former President Trump having spoken to the Israeli Prime Minister. In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn't seen later reporting that both sides denied it."

During a Monday night segment of the PBS News program, Woodruff stated, "The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign."

However, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office denounced Woodruff’s reporting, telling The Jerusalem Post this week that the anchor pushed "a complete lie."

Trumps response was notable...

"I did encourage him to get this over with. You want to get it over with fast. Have victory, get your victory, and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop," he said.

lostbook · 08-21-2024, 11:11 PM

She owned up to her mistake and apologized. That’s more than I can say for most journalists. Where is the issue?

**Maxmars** · 08-21-2024, 11:40 PM

For my part, the issue is that she reported on unvetted hearsay, disregarding contacting sources, and verifying facts... that's probably just a 'me' thing. Did she report that Reuters and Axiom were her only sources? Did she note that she hadn't bothered to seek comment from either party to the alleged conversation...?

When you are a prestigious broadcast professional for the national public broadcasting system, I feel "mistakes" like that shouldn't just happen... but then I understand the news was just soooo good and juicy that they just had to propagate it quickly...

727Sky · 08-22-2024, 01:07 AM

(08-21-2024, 11:40 PM)Maxmars Wrote: For my part, the issue is that she reported on unvetted hearsay, disregarding contacting sources, and verifying facts... that's probably just a 'me' thing. Did she report that Reuters and Axiom were her only sources? Did she note that she hadn't bothered to seek comment from either party to the alleged conversation...?

When you are a prestigious broadcast professional for the national public broadcasting system, I feel "mistakes" like that shouldn't just happen... but then I understand the news was just soooo good and juicy that they just had to propagate it quickly...

Yep once the lie is picked up and spread all the retracts in the world never completely cleans up the mess of the lie ! PBS, CNN, and several others are swamp creatures
Warning very strong language about CNN and their F-ing mouth

l0st · 08-22-2024, 03:48 PM

All the US mainstream news outlets are nothing but propaganda mills anymore. It really ramped up around the time that Trump ran for President the first time. I remember about the second year of his tenure the anti-Trump media blitz was running full-boar. I started looking for alternate sources of daily news that didn't seem so biased one way or the other. I remembered watching PBS NewsHour back in the day and remember it being pretty balanced reporting.

Not so anymore! I sat down and watched NewsHour for like a week and was just absolutely disgusted with what I was watching. First of all, nothing they were reporting was news. Literally every segment was some opinion-laden hit-piece lambasting Donald Trump. They had I think 2 different interviews in one of the episodes and both the host and interviewee just went on-and-on about Donald Trump and how bad he was and how unpopular he was on Twitter and Facebook and blah blah blah. I think they even played the famous "murderers and rapists" clip from like 2 years before as though it had any relevance to the current conversation.

It was just so obviously biased and really not news at all just opinion talking head style like Fox and MSNBC and CNN. I was so put off by this that I actually complained to the FCC about PBS NewsHour billing the show as a News program. I also emailed my local PBS affiliate about how disgusted I was with the clearly slanted reporting. As expected, neither responded.

I guess I grew up in a time when the Nightly National and Local news reported... just the news. I know there used to be regulation that required news agencies to devote equal time covering all parties that was repealed under the Obama admin. I also remember the news agencies being pretty careful not to make statements of opinion any other time than as part of the opinion section of the paper/broadcast that was clearly stated as such. News should be non-political and shouldn't be telling people which opinions to have. News should stick to the facts and let the audience develop their opinions of their own accords. They used to be required to give equal coverage to all political parties as well as not being able to label their broadcasts as "News" if they were clearly opinion, entertainment, or otherwise. All these newscasts now label themselves as "Infotainment" ergo Trump's labeling of "Fake News."

**Maxmars** · 08-22-2024, 04:50 PM

(08-22-2024, 03:48 PM)l0st Wrote: All the US mainstream news outlets are nothing but propaganda mills anymore...

Respectfully, I agree with most everything you have said... except that this is a "US mainstream" news issue. And even perhaps, you didn't mean it the way I first took it.

Truthfully I don't think that this is a "US" industry problem... it is only because we live in the US that we could "react to it," whereas in many other countries there is no useful venue for that discussion.

I think that our friendliest neighbors are knee-deep in the same bullshit narrative presentation in their media as well... meaning Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Never mind the evident reality that in some countries the "news" is a direct production of "establishment thought food" via force of government... covertly and overtly.

We briefly did have a glimmer of true (idealist) journalism in the US... up until the idea of 'activist' journalism struck the industry like a crack addiction. It had even begun to spread to "entertainment"... although the power of the market seems to have offered effective resistance to the tendency thus far.

l0st · 08-22-2024, 05:50 PM

(08-22-2024, 04:50 PM)Maxmars Wrote: Truthfully I don't think that this is a "US" industry problem... it is only because we live in the US that we could "react to it," whereas in many other countries there is no useful venue for that discussion.

I think that our friendliest neighbors are knee-deep in the same bullshit narrative presentation in their media as well... meaning Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Never mind the evident reality that in some countries the "news" is a direct production of "establishment thought food" via force of government... covertly and overtly.

You're right about that. I framed my statements in a US context since we're talking about PBS.

The UK media is flat-out laughable. All of their daily papers are tabloids. I actually got into a thread argument with someone about this on one of the other sites a few years back with a member from the UK who adamantly denied that rags like "The Daily Mail" and "The Register" are tabloids. I've read through pretty much all of the UK MSM sources and all I can say is that Brits do like their tabloids - not that the US media is any better these days.

I have family in Canada and so far as I know their news has always been government sourced. They simply don't allow any independent news sources to publish and stay in business. I believe their primary news is CBC which is government operated.

I haven't paid much attention to the news in Aus and NZ but the bits and pieces that have filtered through in my readings definitely show media slant although I don't know enough about the history of news organizations in those countries to be able to say whether or not a lack of legitimate news reporting is a new occurrence or it has always been that way. I was definitely surprised at the way both countries handled the Covid lockdowns - surprisingly authoritarian. I had a friend from NZ who was stateside when the pandemic hit and although he is an NZ citizen they wouldn't even let him fly back until their quarantine period was over! Crazy! I used to host some things in NZ and the way the event was handled there and some subsequent actions of their government got me a little skittish about their handling of things and I ended up moving all of my hosting out of NZ as a result. I had stuff hosted there for well over 15 years, I believe.