Hysterical Fear Mongering by Media Needs to Stop

Everything is Breaking News

On Friday the financial markets reacted negatively to another round of sensationalized media reports.  This time, coming out of Ukraine, which of course nobody vetted before going on air with, there were no triple sources, you know the old fashioned journalism standard. But the state of modern news media has gotten so desperate for ratings and eyeballs, that everything is ‘breaking news’ and a ‘crisis’ and ‘catastrophe of epic proportions’ that news outlets like ‘Guardian Tweets’ are now counted as legitimate journalistic sources. The quality of news, and more importantly journalistic standards, have dropped to such a degree that basically everything has slippery slopped to tabloid quality coverage of news events. 

It has gotten so bad that government policy and even financial markets are being severally influenced by facts that are exaggerated to such a degree, that they might as well be complete fabrications, because the exaggeration factor is off the charts, more than a factor of 10! For example, 1,000 people have died as a result of Ebola over the past six months, the crisis has reached epidemic proportions….Really during that same time just in the US alone 1,820 people drowned in a first world country, and 1 Million people died around the world from Mosquito related illnesses caused by initial bites. This is a ‘fourth world’ area of the world; I bet there are a half a dozen other real catastrophes in that same area that have caused far more than 1,000 deaths in six months’ time. How about not being on an Electric Grid, or having water and sewer infrastructure?

Propaganda Machines & Manipulation for Agendas

The 40,000- 100,000 Christians trapped on a mountain in Iraq turned out to be 4,000, the misinformation used to hype any news event for sensationalistic purposes is just ridiculous. Now some of this is blatant propaganda by interested parties looking to sway support for a cause, but where is the news media these days with independent fact checking, and contextual framing of news stories? 

Not a Single Quality News Outlet These Days!

I cannot find one single legitimate news source these days, and I have 700 cable channels and a fast internet connection, and no, it isn`t National Public Radio, the BBC, or Public Broadcasting Service. Some entrepreneur with bigger pockets than me should start a news organization which just gives the facts regarding the news. I know, what a concept, but it would stand out from the current crap, like a large gold oasis in the desert. 

I just want the facts, I will then decide for myself what meaning and importance to place on the news, I don`t need this done for me by exaggerating the facts so that I get the “gravity” and “severity” of the news! If one substantially exaggerates the facts, and this will lead to irrational decision making based upon inaccurate information. But the Walter Cronkite days of journalistic standards, or even the CNN standards where they just gave the latest news on a 30 minute ticker in the Ted Turner days is light years in quality from where we have devolved today with ‘Guardian Tweets’. If some news outlet just gave the facts as sourced by multiple checks it ought to be able to gain a solid foothold in the industry with the likes of Republican Fox, or Democrat CNN, or the Doom & Gloom Central at Zero Hedge.

Russia-Ukraine Fact Checking Non-Existent

But the level of Propaganda coming out of the Ukraine-Russian conflict by multiple parties with multiple agendas is at an exceedingly high level. It has been going on for six months; the news outlets should be wise to this by now that they are being used like cheap pawns in the conflict. This should incentivize them to be much more thorough in fact checking, and employ multiple sourcing of stories and news events, and no, a Guardian Tweet doesn`t count as a legitimate news source! 

Read More >>> The US Needs to Stop Meddling in Russia-Ukraine Politics

It is patently obvious by now that the US should not be involved in the Russian-Ukraine school girl fight.  Europe was right to be wary of this ‘pseudo conflict’, and if Malaysian Airlines did any kind of proper due diligence before flying over a ‘rocket launching zone’ Europe probably wouldn`t have gotten sucked into this political morass.  

The news organizations need to ask themselves this question on any story coming out of the Ukraine-Russian conflict — Are we being used for some political agenda? Now do some independent fact checking, and if they cannot multiple-source stories, then it isn`t news that should be reported given the history of propaganda coming out of the region. No news is a far better outcome than inaccurate news, and most news coming out of the Ukraine-Russia conflict has been highly inaccurate as witnessed by “Friday`s Market Punked” Episode!

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The Bond Market just got ‘Punked’!

Some poor sap just bought a 10-year bond with a yield of 2.3% on Friday with an inflation rate of 2.1% with Jackson Hole coming up next week because he thought World War III was coming and the world was coming to an end, when there is no chance in hell that over a 10 year period that is a soundinvestment place for any capital! Traders and market participants are pretty bad at decision making as it is, the last thing they need is inaccurate information via sensationalized and overhyped TMZ Style News reports by the ‘journalism community’ in which to base their decision making process on.

Read More >>> The Bond Market Explained for Mohamed El-Erian