On Nov. 15, the Tribune ran an article titled “Americans struggling to discern facts from falsehoods.” Another article ran on Nov. 16 titled, “Propaganda in the age of social media.”
The first article showed a majority of people felt that they “come across sources that include only one side” and “get conflicting information from different sources.” The second article explained the misinformation and lies spread through social media by Russian “troll” farms known as the Internet Research Agency.
The bias of the media and how easy it is to spread lies throughout social media have been confirmed by these articles reinforcing what many people already know.
As The Salt Lake Tribune becomes a nonprofit and turns over a new chapter, you should ask your readers what they want in a newspaper.
Here is my wish list.
First, create a panel of people with an equal number of liberals and conservatives that monitor content to keep news and editorials/opinions balanced and unbiased. Most issues are very complicated and deserve a variety of different points of view. This fair balance might just help to mend the nasty hateful political divide in our country.
Keep news and editorials/opinions clearly marked and separate. (Start by taking Robert Gehrke off the front page and put him in the editorial section).
On the editorial page for every liberal point of view, run a conservative point of view or just an opposing point of view – side by side.
Instruct Pat Bagley to publish an equal number of negative Democrat/liberal cartoons as he already does the negative Republican/conservative/anti-Trump cartoons. And I say this as a blue-dog Democrat. It will do you good, Pat, and your readers will happily send you ideas.
The Tribune has a wonderful opportunity to become known throughout Utah and the entire nation as the most informed, fair and unbiased news source in our country.
Susan Rounds, Midvale