Bravo, and then fact check to make yourself a more educated supporter of cats or dogs, phewww!

In summary, this thread has been about the truth, and about compassion too.

Just wanted to go back to this. Call your hometown reference librarians as they are usually familiar with the most reliable sources on many topics. Sports, business, trivia, etc. They are not allowed to give medical nor legal advice though.

There are also "tells" when you're cruising the internet, or when someone posts a video or picture or statement on their facebook page. If you hover over the hyperlink, you'll see the address of that hyperlink. If the address includes mercola or whaleto, you can be pretty confident that it's a conspiracy theory that has already been debunked by actual science. If, once you do click on a link, you discover that it's a commercial website created primarily to sell a product, you can assume their spin will be very heavily in favor of whatever product they're selling. They will cherry-pick actual facts, and draw conclusions based on correlations. Science says: correlation does not equal causation. Always keep that in mind.

I could come up with a few dozen examples of the above but they'd all turn this back into a political discussion. So you can try it out yourself. Come up with a current issue about anything. Now check mercola and whaleto to see what they have to say about it. Then, go to an actual scientific website (not WebMD, that is an aggregate that anyone can upload "articles" to). See the difference for yourself.

A hypothetical example: a friend sends you an article about how blue dye in cotton textile manufacturing causes cancer, and everyone is being told to avoid anything made by Acme Clothing, because they use blue dye.

If you trace that "information" far enough, you're very likely to discover that its original source is Smith Clothing company, which is Acme's #1 competitor. And when you check out "blue dye cancer" google searches, you'll discover that the top 20 results will all favor Smith Clothing, or be against Acme. If you add the word "hoax" to your search, you'll find that Snopes has debunked it.

And, thus, history is rewritten. How appropriately Orwellian.

But I know what I saw — even though those posts are gone now.

It sure was not compassion.

I had tried to talk myself out of posting this. But I decided that I would feel bad if I did not speak up for —truth.


(PS: OK, Moderator, get ready for this post to be reported. I’m done.)

:bigbow:


Now THAT'S...the truth!

Thank you Boomer, for having the guts to write what I could not . There are none so blind as cannot see what they do.

And thank you! :thumbup:

You can believe the truth that is reported from reliable news sources, but not from those who are affiliated with a particular political party or persuasion. You know who they are. Those news sources that have reported the truth to us since we were children can still be trusted to do so today. Unfortunately, in today's world so many of us only want to hear things that coincide with what we want to believe rather than the facts.

Facts are often a very painful thing to hear especially when I see the scales over 210 lbs. I liked the One Blood scales before the took the lbs off even if the scale was faulty. The scale would say 205 when it really should have been 209.

They do have a more accurate scale now.

I used to abstract business articles in regional business magazines for Area Business Data Bank put out by Information Access Company then of Belmont, CA. Anyway my editor Robert Lee wanted me to just stick to the facts as much as possible which usually involved numbers like $ earned, $ lost, profit, market share, # of employees, etc. I would try to amuse myself and my editors by sticking puns in the abstracts. History of Information Access Company – FundingUniverse

........... and thank you for adding your common sense to this thread.

Eh. Not being semantic here but there really is a difference between "reporting the truth" and "reporting truthfully."

If ABC news reports a live stream showing Senator Jimbob proclaiming that he won the Senate by 4 million votes...

and he actually only won it by 20 votes...

ABC news is reporting a lie. But they are reporting it truthfully.

Lawyers wreck havoc with eye witness accounts of things mainly because the truth is a very hard thing to get at often.

A law professor would have come right down your throat if you ever made a statement with the word truth in it. At least, the first year of law school.

Except this has nothing to do with the law. It has to do with journalistic integrity.

In my above example, the news reported something that really did actually happen. Senator Jimbob really did state that he won by 4 million votes. They have it on video, the video is datemarked and timestamped, and it was reported live, in front of millions of witnesses. The statement made by Jimbob really did happen exactly as it was reported. The report itself - is a truthful report.

But the report's topic was about a lie. The fact that he lied is the topic. So it was a truthful accounting of a lie. The report wasn't a lie. And the topic wasn't true.

Does everyone know that on any post that anyone can click on the poster's screen name and then can read prior posts from the same poster? Many of us were worried that even someone that we disagreed with would feel really bad? It is sometimes very necessary to pay attention to all that is happening. I think that you might have taken something at face value when other indicators that there was more to the story. Sometimes there are posts removed that would have made sense to a lot of things, but the moderator knows best.

OK. I get that.

"Truth" is one of those words that drive philosophers nuts.

I write a lot of journalists on Facebook and they are very prone to mistakes especially on live broadcasts. Some make fun of themselves. Especially to their Facebook fan bases.

There are "journalists" who seem more like Howard Stern type loudmouths even if I often like Stern's rants he just throws out stuff to shock listeners or watchers to bump up his ratings.

:bigbow::bigbow:

Ah yes truth. Searching for it. Waiting for it. Perhaps tomorrow, some of us will smile silently and those with no manners will say " nah nah nah nah nah nah.".

Since the poking at each other did not cease. This thread is closed.

Moderator