LETTERS: Freedom of the Press | Opinion | stwnewspress.com – Stillwater News Press

Lisa Mantini

Stillwater

To the editor:

What an unusual combo on page A4 (Thursday), a letter by a writer who gets his facts wrong and who seems quite angry about it, combined with an essay by Rich Lowry seemingly arguing that we should support free speech under all cases, facts notwithstanding.

I find the conflict between the need for accuracy in reporting and for freedom of speech to be a very difficult one. We all accept that you cant shout Fire in a crowded theater when youre lying, because people will get hurt in the crush to reach the exits. But former President Trump weaponized lying to an extent not seen before in American history. And we see what we got from his lies about the security of the 2020 presidential election: a murderous, angry mob attacking our very democracy, and many folks continuing to believe that the election, our most secure in recent history according to Trumps own government, was rigged.

What to do?

For me, I check the reliability of my news sources at places like adfontesmedia.com. Notice that the AP, UPI, and Reuters are at the very top of their chart, rated as unbiased and as containing original fact reporting. I also watch NBC News, rated as skews left and highly accurate with Fact Reporting. But I avoid both MSNBC, rated as hyperpartisan left and high variation in reliability and Fox TV, rated as hyper-partisan right and Selective or incomplete story, unfair persuasion, propaganda.

I would urge all consumers of media to peruse their chart, in order to be aware of the quality of what you choose to read and watch.

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LETTERS: Freedom of the Press | Opinion | stwnewspress.com - Stillwater News Press