Personal rant on inaccurate left blogs that end up hurting us.

[blm]

This is my personal opinion, and I certainly hope there are alot more out there who agree, but I see plenty of blogs that nearly everyday get important facts wrong. And they are more and more coming from the left which hurts us when we don't have a corporate media machine covering up for misstatements or lies the way the GOPs do. We can't afford inaccuracies when we argue or debate. Even the smallest misstatements are grounds for a crucifying in today's press.

The left blogs have to do better about using simple facts.

They get house votes wrong, they get senate votes wrong, they mistake one lawmaker for another, mistake one bill for another, or give credit to a signer while ignoring the writer. They confuse the DNC with the DLC, completely miss entire decades of laws and investigations on a regular basis, and cannot recognize chronological order.

When I first started using blogs, they were an oasis - a few people who really seemed to care about correcting the inaccuracies and downright lies that the corporate media were forcing on the public on a daily basis. Many of us pored over them and some of us helped them by adding research from the congressional record or from legitimate articles past.

It was invigorating, and an atmosphere of real exchange of serious information.

Now, there are so many left blogs who aren't doing the kind of homework and legwork that used to be done so scrupulously.

Anyone can say anything, and damn the facts or the actual record if they don't fit the preferred storyline.

Uh.....isn't that what the left was working for years to COUNTER because we were inundated with inaccuracies from the RW corporate media for so long?

I know everyone has a right to their opinion, but that isn't the bottom line here - I think we need to demand more accuracy of ALL those we look to cite. If we don't hold left websites and bloggers to a stricter ethic, then WE will be the ones to lose when there is no one left to replace a Robert Parry or Jonathan Landay.

I miss MediaWhoresOnline with a fierce passion. We are so fortunate to have MediaMatters to step up with their devotion to ACCURACY.

We need MORE left sites devoted to accuracy not less.

Rant off.

[Webster Green]

1. "The left blogs have to do better about using simple facts"

Very broad brush, don't you think.

I'm not exactly disagreeing with your argument, but failure to cite even a single example of what you are referring to kind of takes the bite out of your rant.

[blm]

2. I did not WANT to single out one or two blogs when the problem IS wider.

You can see examples of it everyday when articles are posted here at DU and you can read replies that correct the record. That's why I described the types of mistakes - we all are familiar with these problems and see them often enough to recognize them.

[guruoo]

3. OK, so what do you suggest we do about it?

[JNelson6563]

4. Simple, fact check

and when you come across a blog that has the facts wrong, maybe drop 'em an e-mail with a link to the REAL facts.

:toast:

[guruoo]

5. I agree, that would probably be the best way to handle it ...

but who has time to fact-check every single assertion of fact they read on a liberal blog?

[omega minimo]

9. oh piffle

[blm]

17. That is probably the only feasible way to do it right now.

The post below that suggests an accuracy rating is a good idea, too. It looks to me like a mutually beneficial situation, where we help them become better and more reliable sources and we can use their material with more confidence.

[omega minimo]

7. Oh, pish

[bilgewaterbill]

8. How about Truthout.org's story about KKKRove's indictment? nt

[MH1]

12. You need an example cited?

Seriously?

Okay I understand the point I think you're trying to make, but if someone comments on the heavy rain yesterday, most people don't expect a cite of a weather report.

[burythehatchet]

6. K&R

There should be more, but you may be advocating to apply standards to an environment that doesn't tolerate conforming to standards. Caveat emptor

[blm]

20. This post was inspired by your earlier thread - I couldn't stop thinking

about the difference in the way I viewed and used the earlier left blogs and websites and the way I view the majority of them now.

[omega minimo]

10. K&R

Excellent post. Embarrassingly petty replies............


:yourock:

[sandnsea]

11. It's partly reading comprehension

Part of that blame going on the way stories are written in the first place. People read an inflammatory sentence, freak out and post it. Quite often if you read the whole article, it's a great big "aaaahh, I see", which makes the original headline completely inaccurate. Once the rhetoric takes off, it's next to impossible to ever correct it. I understand when decades old conventional wisdom becomes common wisdom, but when it's an article right in front of somebody's nose, I don't know how you deal with that.

[ProSense]

14. Exactly! That's the key:

The article is right there. I think people make fact checking out to be harder than it really is. It may be time consuming when writing an original piece, but when posting information from a source, there really is no excuse for misinterpretation (not disagreement, but actually taking the information out of context). Even if a comment appears outrageous, a quick read can determine if the outrage is warranted.

I remember seeing one post attributing an outrageous statement to the wrong person simply because both persons were quoted in the same article.

[lonestarnot]

13. Good rant. Agree.

I made an inaccurate statement re Warren Burger being a Morman, instead of a Morman doorman the other night, and kick my own ass for 3 days. I fixed it right away when I discovered my mistake, but still people may have been mislead and it was wrong of me. Not that anybody reads my posts anyway, (I'm not a wordy writer type, fuck is one of my favorites) Anyway confessions of a mistake cause me to be very careful about my facts before I would post any.

[GeorgeGist]

15. Rant well taken...

perhaps an independent rating system would help. Any web savvy DUers out there willing to consider setting such a thing up?

[meisje]

16. I'll get back to you in 24 business hours

[Bridget Burke]

18. No information source is 100% accurate.

Do have any proof that "left blogs" are worse than the others?

[blm]

19. I didn't say they were - my point is that left blogs are now being tapped

as representing US more than ever, and when they are inaccurate it is a reflection on our credibility and veracity.

The left HAS to be accurate BECAUSE we are not treated to the same generosity and leeway the GOPs and the RW media get from the corporate media machine that regularly ignores their lies.