"One wouldn't hang a dog on newspaper extracts." Breakpoint linked this older paper on Lewis and the press. Bluntly: they're trying to form public opinion, and they're not trustworthy, so why do we keep buying their product? The author also talked about how the character Mark Studdock typifies that from That Hideous Strength.
I had a conversation with the people at our housing office the other day on this very subject. He was telling me about a recent local news story they were in, where the reporter didn't even name the right development or actually interview anybody affected. I shared my story about when we were evacuated for the wildfire in 2000, and that little gem that reported "fires raged in the streets of [town actually burned] and [town the fire never reached]." Incidentally, those of us in the second town spent quite a while worrying about our houses for no reason, which was unkind of the journalist.
If even in good faith they get it wrong on subjects we know something about, why trust them on subjects we don't know about? Especially on subjects they have an agenda on? I do make exceptions in my general distrust for journalists I know personally, such as my mother. ;-) But as usual with Lewis, it's food for thought...
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In many cases, my approach to breaking news is to look only at the headlines, or perhaps a few sentences, to get the general idea of what's going on. If the story is important enough that the media keeps talking about it for several days, then I read about it more, by which point they seem to have often corrected the errors they inevitably made to begin with.
Of course, sometimes I get my news from reading opinion articles, which make no secret of trying to convince you of something. And sometimes I just ignore things completely, because I care a lot more about what's happening in sports.
I am lucky enough to have a husband who likes to keep up with the news, figure it out, and pass along the important stories. Between him and my blogs (which, as you mention re: opinion pieces, are pretty clear about their perspective), I feel like I'm doing all right for this stage of life. Maybe when I have more time, I'll want to put more effort into the news.
I'm presently rereading That Hideous Strength, and it's not encouraging in its perspective on how gullible people are. Even -- and this is what makes Mark's character so scary -- when they themselves produce the material and know they more or less made it up, there could be an inclination to give it some credence. Not entirely, but....
(By the way, I love this book. :-) )
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