The News - A Tippling Philosopher

Social Media Vs Mainstream Media: There is No "Vs", the Lines Are Blurred

The long and the short of it: they are both the same, only separated (in the UK at least) by regulation. "News organisations" is another term for "information source", which is a far more nebulous and in some sense accurate term. The modern person gets their

Epistemology

Genuinely Good News for Fans of Truth

With a couple of bars of holiday WiFi, here's one I almost finished previously... This is great news. Yes, admittedly, I love the Guardian, but I love it precisely because I see it as more accurate than any other UK media News source. This is particularly true now

BBC

Right-Wing Bias in the MSM? Reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian Problem

We so often hear about left-wing bias of the mainstream media from those on the right. But there have been very salient examples of right-wing, imperialistic bias from these same sources. And people are calling them out on air. These examples are brilliant, as are the analyses from Novara Media.

Conservatives

What Is Wrong with the Left?: The Mechanisms of Messaging

I was asked the other day “what is wrong with the left?” or “where has the left gone wrong?” This is presumably in the context of the UK since this is quite a different political environment to the US, although there are obvious similarities. Let me answer this question in

Epistemology

Jim Acosta Rips into FOX Disinformation

This is so necessary. Also, full of winning puns. https://youtu.be/663H9mbYKSs Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You can also buy me a cuppa. Or buy some of my awesome ATP merchandise! Please... It justifies me continuing to do this!

BBC

In Defence of BBC News. Sort of.

This piece is not to have some kneejerk defence of the BBC because I am of a liberal persuasion. I am also not a media and communications expert. This is my armchair appraisal of the BBC, and most pertinently, its news programming. My appreciation for the BBC came when I

The News

Media Bias and More Partisan News for the UK

Not one, but two. "Star hosts gear up as Britain braces for partisan TV news", the headline reads. This is pretty dismal news, in my opinion. We have GB News, an anti-BBC Brexiteer-funded new news channel joined by another Murdoch owned news offering, another channel. Partisan news, but

FOX News

FOX News: Frankenstein's Monster Eats Its Maker

Trump has effectively been laughed out of court some 39 times and counting, with recounts turning up 87 extra votes for Biden in Wisconsin at the cost of $3 million. It's all terribly embarrassing. The real lawyers knew there wasn't a case to be had, they

Australia

Murdoch Hack Owned by Right-Wing Australian Ex-PM on Climate Change

This was unexpected but, my, was it brilliant to watch. There are two things to consider here: 1. climate science denial and its connection to media sources that peddle the myths for their own ends 2. the power of the Murdoch empire in dictating political outcomes (most obviously in Australia

democracy

Sacha Baron Cohen on Social Media and Democracy

This has been around for some time now, but it's worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymaWq5yZIYM For a shorter highlight reel, if you're in a rush: https://www.facebook.com/khano.iskhakov/videos/887737428411887/UzpfSTY3OTYyMTQyOToxMDE1NzQzNDMzODMyMTQzMA/ Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher

equality

Tucker Carlson's Chief Writer Resigns Over Racist and Sexist Comments

Tucker Carlson has long been known for his racist views and attitudes, including calling white supremacy a hoax. You could fill hours and hours of video with his racist monologues. Recently, his opinions have seen big-name advertisers pull their spots from his show. That is newsworthy in and of itself.

Crime & Punishment

The Myth of Heather MacDonald's "The Myth of Systematic Police Racism"

Confirmation bias is a pervasive challenge. I am victim to it; you are victim to it. I have been embroiled in many arguments about racial equality in many different places. I was beset on Twitter by a number of people after I took issue with someone who posted this: There

Constitution

Trump Is Ripping up the Constitution and His Supporters Don't Care

It's hard not to be obsessed with politic at the moment; it is all-consuming, it is everywhere. I have argued over the Consitution with Trump cultists here many times and they appear to obsess over it. The drool over their own justification of the document. When it is

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Is a "Partisan Pandemic"

I have subjected myself to listening to each and every press briefing from the White House in their entirety over the last few weeks. It is definitely a source of pain. You don't need me to repeat myself again in exasperation that people could vote for the utter

Epistemology

"Numbers Are Continuing to Rise!" Leadership Matters. Truth Matters.

"Numbers are continuing to rise..." You might be forgiven for thinking this was an assessment of the death statistics (in the US); after all, this was a comment by the POTUS. But no, it was on Twitter and it was, yet again, a comment from Trump rather narcissistically

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Overreaction?

In the UK, we have just had our schools shut down (to be repurposed as "babysitting" facilities for key works, looked-after children and those with EHCPs [Educational Health Care Plans]). In other words, without being too far from a lockdown, things have just got serious. As they have

Coronavirus

The Media and Pandemics

I was having a discussion today about whether coronavirus has caused the media to take up scaremongering. My personal opinion is that the media are not scaremongering, they are just really excited. And excited people tend to over exaggerates and be, well, excitable. This is a journalist's or

Epistemology

Fox News Internal Report: Their Own Guests Spread "Disinformation"

This report is delicious for people like myself, who have long maintained that FOX News spread disinformation and lies, that their ideological bias distorts truth beyond the limits of credibility. Well, now FOX have admitted this themselves in an internal report. I wonder what regular commenters here who defend FOX

Epistemology

Fact-Checking the Triggered Trumps

I am pretty big on fact-checking, accuracy and making sure that my claims are reasonable. I don't always get it right, but I like to think that I will change my articles to reflect a more accurate position wherever possible. Before I go on, it is both useful

Brexit

How Political Power Works and Maintains

This was a facebook post that I felt I had to repost here from someone/profile called Ad Sinistram. This is precisely the scenario that gets me riled, and why I have complained that the US political landscape, with its overt lobbying, constitutes legalised corruption. The UK, it appears (unsurprisingly)

alt-right

On Left and Right Politics: Andy Ngo and Marie Colvin

I know that this was the subject of my last piece and I apologise if I’m going to bore you. However, this is something I’ve been brooding upon to the last couple of days. I have seen a number of friends and colleagues posting and writing about this

Epistemology

The Reliability of News Sources

Epistemology is the study of truth and knowledge in the context of philosophy. And when writing about philosophy and politics and religion and all the things I do, I need to ensure that my sources are as reliable as possible. Of course, this should be paramount for everyone the world

Daily Mail

Stats: The Daily Mail Is by Far the Most Inaccurate (Dishonest?) Paper in Britain

IPSO, the press self-regulatory body, have recently released the stats concerning inaccurate claims that have been challenged and upheld: Staunch left-wing site Another Angry Voice reports it as follows: It's important to bear in mind that these 37 upheld complaints only scratch the surface of the dishonesty and

Christianity

Analysing the Muslim Foster Care Scandal: Daily Mail Hypocrisy

There has recently been a scandal in the UK regarding a child from a Christian background being fostered by Muslim foster carers. This has produced quite a lot of media attention due to the fact that the foster carers supposedly encouraged the five-year-old girl to speak Arabic and banned her

alt-right

"Alt-Right"? No, the Far Right.

It's all going off in the US, that's for sure. But something that has been bugging me, and many others, is the use of the term "alt-right". This seems to be a term to describe the rise of the right amongst social media and