Brooke Gladstone on Truthiness

"In a 2009 poll, 60% of respondents charged news organizations with bias, up from 45% in 1985," wrote Brooke Gladstone, author of The Influencing Machine. "In both years, they saw a mostly liberal bias. And in fact, reporters are more likely than the general public to identify themselves as liberal" (Gladstone, 2011, 60).

"Journalists will bend over backward to appear balanced by offering equal time to opposing viewpoints, even when they aren't equal. Often they bend to the right, to evade the charge of liberal bias" (Gladstone, 2011, 69).

Our names are Scott Hall and Sierra Copeland and our mission is to prove which medium of news brings us the most truth. The mediums we will be exploring are Fox News, CNN and The Daily Show. We also intend to find which medium brings what Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness" (Colbert, 2013). In John McManus's Detecting Bull he helps us define truthiness. "Truth is for those who think with their heads. Truthiness is for those who know with their hearts" (McManus, 2012, 45). As media consumers we have to constantly be on our toes considering information being fed to us. We need to know how to tell the difference between the truth and the not-so-truthful news that bombards our everyday life.

Colbert Nation Truthiness