Facebook is a great way to share information with friends
- but can also end up passing on false or partial information. Therefore, just
like e-mails, I encourage people to check things out!
The image says "New York Times" at the top and
has a quote that discusses "Veterans' Jobs Bill Block in the Senate".
Since at first blush, it does not seem to be a good move politically for Senate
members, I got curious and decided to find and read the article it came from –
and why they would not pass a bill to help Veterans.
It appears that things like Snopes, Fact Check or Truth
Team are not as unbiased as they used to be. So it's good to go directly to
articles quoted, bills discussed or full context of quotes.
I use this example because it is very current and I have
seen it many times and decided to do a little research..
#1: It appears to be from a blogger on NYT on-line site.
Though not just a random person but a regular NYT blogger, this TruthTeam quote
comes from a combination opinion piece /news piece blog. It’s important to
understand that blogs and editorials are created for opinions to be expressed,
based on the news and current events, but not necessarily unbiased news
reports.
#2: It’s always good to read things in context, and get
opposing views. So here is a link to the article.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/veterans-jobs-bill-blocked-in-the-senate/
The overall tone is not a whole lot different from the
quote, but according to the article, Republicans voted against it specifically
because the $1 billion bill was not funded. There does appear to be an expected
source of funding, but possibly not attached to this bill. Also saw that the $1
billion would be to create up to 20,000 jobs. That's a minimum of $50,000 to
create each job - not even the actual income veterans would receive.
My goal: To
encourage people to not just pass along little snippets that sound good.
Instead to get involved in the political process by educating and informing
themselves. This is just one example of how I chose to do that.
Heather J. Kirk
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