h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On what the subject is, and the source. Most people get the wrong side of a story sometimes and you can't blame them. However proaganda and censorship do plague the media, but can be hard to sort out.
A final thought: newspaper journalism is all about opinions. Is it right to judge someone else's opinion? Can opinions be juged?

It would be all right if personal opinion was clearly the paper's agenda, but the power of a newspaper lies in its headlines.

They catch peoples' eyes as they pass the news stand, not as opinions; they state "the facts", proclaiming irrefutable truth, and are written in few words in such a way that supposes an implicit truth to anyone who won't question it, i.e. most who buy it.

For instance, The Mirror said recently

LOUISE
Lover's brother is schizophrenic who once stood trial for murder
Mother bans doc's treatment and admits "I'm afraid of police"

All facts, but impressionable souls may imply schizophrenics are all dangerous potential murderers, doctors are not to be trusted and the police are villains.

The lover's brother was obviously not charged and sentenced for murder, or it would say so. The mother obviously had problems with her doctor and that local police unit, but that is not obvious in the
text. The opinion is there, with no room for argument.

Someone without the capacity to read between the lines or think for themselves might decide on that basis not to seek help from a doctor or the police when they needed it, which could be extremely dangerous.
They might also tell their children to keep away from a schizophrenic neighbour for no justified reason.

They might even vandalise the property of a pediatrician, thinking they molest children rather than take care of their health. Imagine that.

It would be nice to think people weren't that stupid, but unfortunately they are, largely because of the quantity and availability of such information; in the newsagents, in the canteen, in the drain and round your chips. The more people read it, the more their perception and opinion will be shaped by it, and the more they trust it without even consciously realising it.

I'd be stating fact if I wrote a headline that said

TONY BLAIR
son charged with under-age drinking
second-in-command assaulted protester in street

Which might imply that he has no capacity for leadership or any responsibility for his children or his employees, much less his country. In spite of my opinion (much as it grieves me to admit it) he must have those qualities, or he would not have got to the position of Prime Minister, or become a father of three.

If I was Headline Editor of the Mirror, I'd be fired for suggesting otherwise. But I'd be told to say

VOTE LABOUR instead.