He Said, She Said Reporting once again annoys the heck out of me

No wonder the media is so easy to manipulate. They NEVER report facts or fact check, they just do everything he said, she said, in some twisted notion of "balance" that gives way too much weight to discredited positions. Politicos, particularly the GOP, know this, and take massive advantage of it at every opportunity.

Today, I heard on the radio reporting about the trapped (and probably dead) miners. And sure enough, it was all he said, she said reporting. The mine owner claims the collapse had nothing to do with his operations or safety failures. He said it was an earthquake. Actual earthquake experts, monitoring actual earthquake detection equipment, said there was no earthquake. But how is this reported? "The mine owner says an earthquake collapsed the mine. But scientist critics claim it was not an earthquake. End of story." AAAAAARRRRRGGGHGHHGH!!!

Even for something as blatently obvious and verifiable as a frickin EARTHQUAKE is reported he said, she said, instead of just, you know, reporting the FACTS. Such as: Fact: There was no earthquake. The mine owner's claims that there was an earthquake are either mistaken or he is lying to cover up the real cause of the collapse. And the lying part is much more likely, given his continued insistence it was an earthquake in the face of the massive evidence there was no earthquake. That would be unbiased, accurate reporting. Sure, it makes him look bad, but then HE is the one who made himself look bad by making such a ridiculous claim. It isn't the media's fault he acted like an ass. But no, they can't do that. That kind of reporting takes effort and research (though very little of it in this particular circumstances). Maybe they are afraid it would set a precedent requiring actual fact-checking in their other reporting. Maybe they are afraid of the (usually totally false) claims of "liberal bias" that has kept reporters from doing anything but this style of reporting. Maybe it is because most of the media is owned by the far-right, and they like being able to manipulate (or outright ignore and alter) facts for stories.

All I know is it totally disgusts me and makes me want to scream every time I see it, no matter what the context. If it weren't for Glenn Greenwald and Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, I'd probably have given up and gone insane by now.

Sitting here and acting like there is some controversy or doubt as to whether or not a frickin EARTHQUAKE happened reminds me of the scene in Erik the Viking where the island sinks into the ocean while they deny it is happening because "don't be silly, the island couldn't possibly be sinking, we have too many safeguards to prevent that."