Lies are mental poison being fed to the masses daily. News media should be the antidote. Instead, they pour the poison down our collective throats. At They Stand Corrected, I’m doing my best to get you doses of truth.
When headlines announce media hypocrisy
For two decades, news agencies have described Gaza and The West Bank falsely as “occupied territories.” Now, they’re headlining the news that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to… occupy Gaza. Yes, really. If you’re new to this show, now would be a great time to start with Episode 1.
From the headlines — read by incomparably more people than the articles — you wouldn’t know that Netanyahu said he wants to “hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and giving the Gazans a good life.” It’s controversial, including in Israel, where the vast majority of people just want to live very peacefully in their tiny stretch of finally decolonized (yes) land without constant attacks from Islamist terrorists, which are on the rise worldwide.
For context, news agencies should be telling audiences about the post-World War II occupation of Germany by U.S. and other Allied Forces, which was essential for deradicalization and denazification.
Staged photo scandal
Photos from Gaza showing starvation have been posed and staged, an investigation by Germany’s largest newspaper Bild showed. It’s pathetic that this investigation was needed though, since the facts have been widely available for any news agency willing to look.
The paper noted that a photographer had women and children pose for him holding empty pots and looking desperate — while other photographers nearby showed the actual scene: mostly men, lining up for food and getting it. Guess which photos the news agencies went with.
The photographer also posts hateful things about a country whose actions he’s covering, which is journalistically unacceptable everywhere else but par for the course when that country is Israel. Rather than fixing the problem and acknowledging that they’ve turned a blind to “Pallywood” performances, news agencies are continuing the charade. They’re even showing you repugnant propaganda videos of kids eating dirt and sand. Learn more in the latest episode. Among those platforming these lies is CNN during a segment on Colbert.
When comedians attack
Speaking of Colbert, in a 2022 survey, 39% of Americans said they get news and current events from comedians, while 72% said they get commentary. And a study this year found, “Listeners tend to trust news they hear on comedy podcasts” — which, by the way, include Colbert and other shows released as podcasts.
In the latest episode, hear a clip from Patton Oswald on South Beach Sessions:
“I hate the phrase that comedians are the truth tellers and the philosophers, it's like, shouldn't we be comedians and our politicians and philosophers and journalists should be the truth tellers standing up for people so that the audiences I perform for I can say silly s**t that I made up that amuses them in this better world they're living in?”
Yes. But here we are. In this episode, you’ll also hear about a piece fact checking a John Oliver episode about trans issues. In that column, Leor Sapir notes that Oliver event went after the appearance of one of his colleagues at City Journal. “Yes,” he writes. “That’s the level to which Oliver stooped here.”
