Richard (‘Dick’) Byrd, Esq. On “True Facts, Fake News, Whose Truth Is True”.

by Anura Guruge

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Yes, this is the same Dick Byrd of Photoshop fame.

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True Facts, Fake News, Whose Truth Is True

So, you think that the only truth you can believe is the truth you see with your own eyes and ears. Well, have you ever seen versions of the college Psychology !01 experiment where a three students run into a classroom and chase each other and have a fight and then run out of the classroom. Then the professor asks each student to write what they saw, and to identify the clothing worn by each, and for other particulars of the encounter. Of course the 30 students have at least 30 vastly different versions of the “truth” as to what happened. Obviously, your own observations do not necessarily reveal truth.

In today’s political environment facts are often marshaled by a person, or group, so as to influence public opinion. The problem is that some collection of true facts can lead to one conclusion, yet some other array of also true facts can lead one to the opposite conclusion. A prime example is MSNBC showing the stories of several undocumented alien children who graduated from high school as class valedictorians and several who served very honorably in our armed forces. Then you see a Fox news segment about six illegal aliens who murdered and raped Americans in the past month. All of the stories actually happened, but the “cherry-picking” as to which stories to report makes all the difference in what a viewer might conclude about the value of immigration.

What is the role of Confirmation Bias in our ability to believe the news stories we would like to be true, and to reject as lies, those stories that the wish were not true. The Internet has made available all of the “news” real and fake, and mostly cherry-picked, so that what ever is your previously held confirmation bias, you can find “news” to satisfy your preconceived notions of reality.

Dick Byrd

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Related posts:
Check Category ‘New Hampshire’.

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by Anura Guruge