Mark Twain schools Fox, CNN and the rest of the 21st century media

[Richardo]

Never say 'We learn' so-and-so, or 'It is reported', or 'It is rumored', or 'We understand' so-and-so; but go to headquarters and get the absolute facts, and then speak out and say 'It is so-and-so.' Otherwise, people will not put confidence in your news. Unassailable certainty is the thing that gives a newspaper the firmest and most valuable reputation.

- Roughing It, 1871

I'm sure he'd have have a total meltdown if he saw questions as headlines.

[tanyev]

1. Or "Let's go to Twitter and see what people are saying!"

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. Don't get me started on that....

Absolutely the laziest form of pseudo-journalism imaginable.

[hobbit709]

2. He said something about a lot of things that are just as true today if not more so.

[DetlefK]

3. If the headline is a question, the summary of the article is always: "No."

[Dirty Socialist]

4. He Was WRONG

His statement is trumped by P.T. Barnum, who said "There's a sucker born every minute." Sad but true.

[alterfurz]

6. Mr. Twain, please meet Mr. Orwell

[lark]

7. How old fashioned.

What, did he actually expect news organizations to investigate the news? How yesterday is that? We know they really exist just to promote and increase the interests of the 1% and to convince the sheeple to follow the correct path and vote against their own interests.

[IDemo]

8. "I'm sure he'd have have a total meltdown if he saw questions as headlines."

Or - "Ten Things You Need to Know About XYZ".

Who says I need to know?

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Those clickbait headlines are so easy to spot I can always avoid them here, though.

"This girl was despondent after her pet chicken was killed by a jihadi; you won't believe what happened next!" (With the punchline being that the local mosque clubbed together to raise enough money to send her off to learn falconry, or something.)

Those, and the Daily Mail (who always have a very characteristic pattern of capitalisation in their headlines). I see those, I know not to click.

[Richardo]

11. "clickbait" I like that.

....AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHY IT'S BETTER THAN THESE 18 OTHER TERMS!!!

*link to cumbersome ad-riddled 'slideshow' that reloads every page*

[heaven05]

10. look, before our current POTUS

our country was, 2000-8, a three ring circus run by killer clowns. And the RW media, both radio and TV, created by that circus is the freak show from the carnival. At least we have a ringmaster running the show, now.