give me a source

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-26-2003
give me a source
11
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 5:47pm

it is tossed around here often enough: "please give me a source." LOL I always ask. but too often when a source is given, it is labeled as biased. sometimes the label is true, sometimes not.

my observation is: we are at the point where our sources of information do not overlap as liberals and conservatives. i feel like all the sites i would consider unbiased - such a factcheck.org - are now being discredited as liberal.

so i am asking you to give me a source, an unbiased source, so that i don't have to waste time giving you a source that you won't considered to be credible.

Bea

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2005
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 7:31pm

I see no one has answered you (at least, yet).

I'm truly interested. If factcheck.org is too liberal, name me a site that is balanced. I'd love to check them out. Although, considering how many conservatives I know who think foxnews is "fair and balanced"...

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-16-2008
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 7:37pm

I didn't answer because I've never had an issue with factcheck, or wiki, or even MSNBC.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2008
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 7:43pm
I'm ok with most msm when it's backed
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-27-2008
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 7:48pm
I like to verify that the material appears in 2-3 other reliable sources.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2006
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 8:39pm

I dunno...I usually check a bunch of sources. One red flag for me is the use of opinionated and/or condescending language in the article being referenced, or an incomplete analysis. What's left usually gets labeled "liberal" if I use it for a reference.

Actually, I don't care much because when a person starts screaming "liberal bias", I figure they've run out of legitimate arguments. I'm perfectly capable of seeing for myself if something looks a little suspect, and I think that most of my fellow posters are fairly canny about this also.

I do think there might be a sort of "cultural divide" between conservatives and liberals about what constitutes "reasonable" debate. I also suspect that "conservatives" may tend to respect "authority" more than "liberals", and to expect other people to do so as well. I say this as the somewhat liberal northern-raised child of hard-boiled conservative southern parents. From my POV, they're too easily swayed by emotional arguments and scare tactics; I think they'd say that they agree with these statements because they reinforce what they already "know" to be true, because they have more "experience" than I. Of course they always will, because they're older! Even in matters where I have a hundred times their experience (like in taking care of children with chronic, expensive health conditions, which they were fortunate to never have to deal with), they are "older and wiser". They've hinted that I don't understand "the real world" because I flat-out reject blanket statements like "Obama will tax us out of existence" and "Obama will take away our guns". I want more proof than the say-so of some charismatic blowhard on Fox. From my POV their reasoning is circular, from theirs, I'm playing logical "tricks". I was raised (by my conservative parents) to be polite and respectful in my dealings with others, in person or in print. Maybe this doesn't apply to politics! Fox is very disrespectful to viewpoints not in line with its conservative editorial slant; I've been puzzled by the same thing on this board. Sometimes my statements of facts or opinions or personal experiences has not been countered by the same sort of thing from a different POV, but by name calling and insults. Maybe we could all agree on "rules of conduct"? (Note the surfacing of that "logical" northern side again, lol.)

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-02-2003
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 8:51pm

I like to go to foreign country news sites to see what they are saying.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 8:57pm

The reason no one has proposed a so called “reliable” source is that the Republican have an interesting perspective on “truth”. The Neil Armstrong Principle (proposed below) sums up the the rationale for why “fact check” just doesn’t cut it for Republicans.

>>If John McCain and Sarah Palin were to say the moon was made of green cheese, we can be certain that Barack Obama and Joe Biden would pounce on it, and point out it's actually made of rock. And you just know the headline in the paper the next day would read: "CANDIDATES CLASH ON LUNAR LANDSCAPE."

Why doesn't somebody call Neil Armstrong? He's been there. Or go to the Smithsonian and open the glass case that contains a piece of the moon. The moon is a rock. That's a fact, Jack.

Facts are indeed stubborn things, but the McCain-Palin lies are more stubborn still. <<

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/the-mccain-palin-lies-and_b_125240.html

Form your own opinion.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-26-2003
Thu, 10-02-2008 - 1:01am

thanks for your responses to this question, but i still don't have an answer. i know several said to check multiple sources, but that doesn't cut it if the other person defines every one of those as biased. I could check 50 sources and they would all be "wrong." I'm asking those who feel the media is biased: where do you get information that you consider unbiased?

which makes me wonder do you get your information from sources that you know to be biased in your direction - but you choose that rather than a source that "might" be biased in the other way?

Bea

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2004
Thu, 10-02-2008 - 9:52am

I work for the U.S. Congress, and I work for an organization that is required, by law to be nonpartisan and unbiased.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Thu, 10-02-2008 - 12:34pm

In this situation, I don't think you can win. There is no one paper of record any longer. There is no perfect source. I try to find the information verified in several different places. If I can find the original document, that's even better.

Laura

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