On Wed, 07 Oct 2015 07:57:41 +0100, scott wrote:

>>> Curiously, a lot of people seem to think that news has to be factually
>>> accurate - by law or something. And that we have these "journalistic
>>> freedom" laws to protect the public by allowing news media to bring
>>> important matters to public attention.
>>>
>>> But... er... last time I checked, the media can print absolutely
>>> anything that will sell copies. In other words, MAKE MONEY. So...
>>> um...
>>> am I being dense or something?
> 
> Last time I checked they weren't allowed to print defamatory content.

True, but the general way to "get around" that is to frame it as an 
opinion rather than as fact.

There is a difference between:

"In my opinion, Joe Schmoe is a dope"

and

"Joe Schmoe is a dope"

>> As I might have mentioned before your trip, millions of people live in
>> the US and don't get murdered every day.  "Surviving" here is not like
>> entering a war zone.
>>
>> And I say that as someone who thinks that the gun fetish in this
>> country is out of hand.
> 
> We get fed articles like this over here:
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34424385

Yep.

There's a lot of truth in what's said there - and it is frustrating to 
live in a country where the majority congressional party is uninterested 
in a meaningful discussion about gun control or mental health, but is 
willing to waste hundreds of millions of dollars and years investigating 
the death of 4 Americans in an embassy because it's a chance to score 
political points.

But remember that this is a country of > 300,000,000 people.  In 2015, 
there have been maybe 40,000 gun-related "incidents" - not all of them 
(about 1/4, actually) resulting in a death.

That's a relatively low incidence of incidents per capita.  It's still 
too high, and it's still too easy to get guns in this country - but it's 
not an active war zone, either - and shouldn't be treated like it is.

Jim

-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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