buksida wrote:CNN and news websites are controlled and part of the editors job is to fact check and verify the legality and authenticity of the story before it is run (whatever their political allegiance), or else they'd all end up getting sued.
LOL! The majority of Americans don't trust the press because we know when we're being lied to, where 'lying' includes not covering something, covering part of what happened, covering it by talking only to observers who agree with the news outlet's politics, using weasel words and dancing along both the edges of so-called journalistic ethics and the edge of libel, and more. CNN isn't called the Clinton News Network for nothing.
The news media doesn't fact check, they trust their reporters unless something is totally beyond the pale. For example a TV news reader during a live broadcast was handed a bulletin. He said something like 'I'm not reading this. Verify it'. Turned out to be false. When they do 'fact check' it's sometimes no more valid then saying we heard the rumor from 3 different sources, none of whom agreed to be named.
Some magazines (remember them?) verify each fact and quote in a story. The New Yorker is well known for it because authors being published there for the first time are amazed at how detailed it is, even after hearing the stories. Other magazines such as Rolling Stone, publish spew that fits their politics if the author says it's true. A judge ordered Rolling Stone to pay 3 million USD after recently losing a defamation case.
Sure, sometimes news media are sued. It's rare. Why? Because even if one has enough money to endure and win the legal battle, they still lose. Why? An old saying from the days of print went something like 'Never pick a fight with an organization the buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton.' Peter Thiel, a billionaire, funded Hulk Hogan's suit against Gawker and won, but how many people can fund a 10 Million USD lawsuit?