Probably not. As long as providing news has been a way for people to make money, the desire for increasingly sensational stories that'll attract attention has led to the proliferation of ridiculous claims and massive misinterpretation of relatively mundane facts. Case in point: an article that claims that eating the yolk of an egg is as dangerous as smoking.
This article was presented on the first day of my Statistics class this semester as an example of how facts can be skewed to an absurd degree by the media for the sake of creating a story from nothing. The original research that this article is based on concluded that people at risk of heart disease should probably avoid egg yolks. This was violently twisted by the author of this article to mean, "EGG YOLK WILL CAUSE CORONARY HEART DISEASE. BEWARE."
This highlights a major problem with our society: people will assume that a source is reliable just because of support from a major news outlet, especially if its a topic that they're not personally educated on. That being said, while it's your responsibility as an individual to look into the information that you're taking in, the people putting it out these kinds of articles should be held accountable as well. Providing people with this kind of misleading trash and calling it news is morally reprehensible, and it's rather depressing that people still think this is okay to do.
This has really been more of a commentary on the media at large than a specific current event, but I hope that it encourages a more critical look at the world. Tomorrow, John'll be posting with news that could potentially save your life. Be sure not to miss it.
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