You don't know whether or not what s... by Russell Blackford | We Heart Quotes

You don't know whether or not what someone else says is heartfelt. You might be inclined to judge that they're sincere from the way they express themselves, but it's not a publicly ascertainable fact. I cringe whenever I see a news report that somebody said something 'heartfelt'.

- Russell Blackford

Other quotes by Russell Blackford

A problem with trusting the mainstream media these days is the immense decline in journalistic standards and editorial support introduced for cost-cutting reasons.

- Russell Blackford

Straight news reporting should give the reader an accurate and (as far as humanly possible) objective account of the facts. It should not sneak in editorializing by claiming that what someone said was 'inappropriate' or 'problematic' or 'offensive'. That's for the reader to judge. If you purport to be publishing straight news reports, and yet you engage in this kind of semi-covert editorialising, your readers will notice and decide that you're a biased source.

- Russell Blackford

If the news media want to be trusted they need to report the facts objectively and accurately, not tell us what to think about an event without telling us exactly what the event was.

- Russell Blackford

When did the mainstream media and the political culture get taken over by some nineteenth-century Methodist Temperance Union? The puritanism has reached ridiculous proportions of late, and from the political Left almost as much as the Right.

- Russell Blackford

Today, we each need to guard against various large and small Outrage Machines of the political Left. Otherwise, we can be shunned, harassed, dogpiled, smeared, publicly shamed, devastatingly labelled, falsely accused of wrongdoing, or otherwise hurt and harmed for trivial, dubious, or non-existent transgressions. Our good reputations can be destroyed, our jobs can be threatened or ended, and our careers can be ruined.

- Russell Blackford

Occasional reminder to people in the news media. A troll is not a stray person who makes a nasty, perhaps fair perhaps not, criticism of a celebrity whom you're sympathetic to. A troll is an online provocateur, someone who makes maddening comments to fish for outraged responses.

- Russell Blackford

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