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On Mon, 15 Oct 2001, Amara Graps wrote:
> Alex F. Bokov:
> >This raises an interesting question: how to form a rational opinion
> >when most sources of information claim to be unbiased and all of them
> >are biased? The US goverment lies. The enemies of the US government
> >lie. The mass media is owned by like a dozen people, and what are the
> >chances that they're impartial in all this?
>
> How about a low-tech approach, like talking to the involved people
> (Afghans, Muslims) directly?
Only low-tech if you live in a community where there is an Afghan
population. If this is within a Western country, their opinions will
be based on the same biased news sources you have access to yourself.
Furthermore, their choice of available news sources will have its
own bias-- perhaps the pro-Iraq and pro-Palestine party line. This
would be useful as one of several alternately biased sources that
correct for each other, but not as a standalone approximation of the
truth.
To concretize this, as far as I can tell, Arab media are feeding their
listeners an insane conspiracy theory implicating the Mossad in the
bombings. Hardly an improvement over CNN.
- --
* I believe that the majority of the world's Muslims are good, *
* honorable people. If you are a Muslim and want to reassure me and *
* others that you are part of this good, honorable majority, all *
* you need to say are nine simple words: "I OPPOSE the Wahhabi cult *
* and its Jihad." *
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