Fake News and How Journalists Twist Your Words
Believing everything you read can be a dangerous game. There are occasionally two different sides or interpretations of every story. So which one do you choose to believe?
Some stories sound hard to believe, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t true?
Let’s get straight into it. My first example is the saddening news of Chester Bennington’s suicide.
On July 20th 2017, the news surfaced that Chester Bennington was found dead at his home by hanging. The first facts that were reported was there was alcohol in his system, as he was struggling to stay sober, having previously been an addict. However, not every article wanted to follow the story at face value.
An article on yournewswire.com claimed that police suspected Bennington was murdered and the crime scene was set up to look like a suicide. Despite backlash, the website stood by their claims as they felt the circumstances of his death were suspicious. Considering Chester lost his close friend, Chris Cornell, to suicide two months prior to his death in similar circumstances, an unnamed police source believed there was a murder conspiracy between the two.
Both artists were sexually abused as children. Therefore, it has been theorised that the two were about to reveal a secret paedophile ring within the government; so they were killed off a result to protect the information.
Is there any solid evidence behind this theory? No. It simply seems like people who are trying to put two and two together because it will grab the attention from their readers. Due to the release of the article before an official autopsy was released, they stood by their statements. However, once the autopsy was released and the cause of death was deemed to be, in fact, by suicide. The article was officially labelled an internet hoax and fake news.
The second example is XXXTentacion. There has been much controversy surrounding this particular artist, especially on the subject of his domestic abuse charges after his girlfriend cheated on him. Therefore, when a recorded conversation was released to the public with the rapper regarding this topic, during the months following his death, it was always going to be a big news story.
There have been several articles headlining the title “XXXTentacion confesses to domestic abuse in secret recording” which obviously caught the attention of readers everywhere. However, they only picked out three lines of the 27 minute long recording. In this case, should the public be doing their own research? As there is clearly more to the conversation than just those three lines? The answer is yes. In the full recording, the rapper actually says he did not abuse his girlfriend and it seems the articles were taking his words out of context.
During the recording, the rapper refers to a conversation he had with an inmate who shifted his anger to forgiveness. He stated the inmate told him “That’s not what a man would do. A man would find out the truth, forgive her and then move on with your life”. This is the advice XXXTentacion claims he took when handling the situation.
It is obvious that now the rapper is no longer here to defend himself, news articles took the opportunity to make a big news story for themselves. It is quite a low point if news writers feel they need to manipulate their readers belief of a person who is no longer alive. It probably felt like the easiest option for them considering the reputation of the rapper prior to his death. When the opportunity arose to clear up his domestic abuse charges, should they have done the right thing and put the truth out? Yes. But they decided to make a story that draws more readers based on shock value.
My final example is Loyle Carner. During an interview with Shortlist, he goes into his distrust towards journalists and why he is careful with what he says in interviews.
“I just don’t trust these journalists, man,”
“I keep them away from my family and they still come and knock on my door, talk to my mum. My mum goes: ‘I met this really nice lady and she just wanted to chat’ and then they twist what she said and write whatever they want. I don’t care what people think. I’m just protective. I swear, if this keeps happening, in a year or so I’m done. None of you lot will ever see me ever again…”
Loyle Carner also says he does not allow journalists into his shows as he believes they try to give rappers a bad name by only focusing on the bad and drug related stories in their songs instead of headlining the positive things they do.
In an interview with the Cambridge Union, he says “What the issue was in the newspaper was they were saying ‘Grime Does Pay’ ‘Drug Dealer Gets MBE’ Which is bullshit. Yes he did bad things, yes he’s rapped about them. But he has saved a lot of children.”
“How you get away from these things is 1. To not look at them, don’t click on them, don’t interact with them at all. At my shows, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, they’re all banned. They can’t come to my show, they can’t review my shows. Because I don’t give a fuck what they have to say, and you shouldn’t give a fuck about what they have to say because ‘it’s racist’, ‘it’s homophobic’. It’s not. It’s bullshit. That’s how I feel”
He aims to keep his personal life to himself and keep the journalists out of his career and family business. Which seems a wise choice considering how they are trying to give grime and rap artists a bad name.
Sources:
