The important difference between mainstream and alternative media
Letter writers such as Nigel Pike and HHB tell us that the reason we don’t like Donald Trump is because of the biased mainstream media and we should instead rely on “alternative news”.
First let me say I am often critical of the mainstream media and I believe no media outlet could be objective even if they wanted to be. The news is not like mathematics, where there is only one answer to every question and nothing is open to interpretation.
Still, the mainstream media have standards. For example, as much as the New York Times dislikes Donald Trump it wouldn’t accuse him of being a child molester unless it had solid evidence that he is. Yet, the “alternative news” accused Hillary Clinton of running a child-sex ring.
And even conservative news outlets such as Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are not going to claim millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton when they know the evidence is not there.
So as bad as the mainstream media sometimes are, the “alternative news” sources that Nigel Pike and HHB refer to have no standards at all, and you will sound as stupid as those two men if you quote from them.
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
