The News Media Should Give Us More Details — Not Just Conclusions

We’re busy. Even though the internet gives us the ability to obtain information more directly than ever before, it is often difficult to find and takes too much trouble (not to mention thought), so we just accept the summary given by others, both traditional media outlets and tweets and posts on the internet.

We expect the media to report facts, but lately I’ve been seeing more conclusions, or at least extremely general summaries. One example is the current coverage of the changes to certain of Georgia’s election laws. Because these changes roll back some measures that reduced inconveniences connected with voting (some of which measures were established only due to the COVID emergency), the changes are described as voter suppression

I imagine that much the same can be said about coverage of other election-related bills in state legislatures around the country.

Since I expect to use many of my posts to take the traditional media to task for weak or opinionated reporting, it is only fair that I also note good efforts from time to time. Recently ABC News had an online story Breaking down claims about Georgia’s election law: What’s true and what’s not? This article analyzed claims about various features of the law and advised where both parties were being less than accurate.