where do you find the truth?

[woodpam]

I had no idea, until yesterday, that the previous lot of weapons inspectors found and destroyed 9 times as many weapons in Iraq as were destroyed in the last Gulf War. Where do other ABers find a balanced, factual account of what's going on from more than one point of view? How do you evaluate what information you are being given? This question stems from the impending war in the Gulf, but could equally apply to scientific subjects or in my experience anything involving statistics.

[sft42]

As said famously "the truth is out there" the problem is finding it! We have a deluge of info these days from 24hour news channels, the internet and newspapers but each source of the info has it's own agenda.... news channels owners might for example also be quite happy to have a war if they also own share's in large arms manufacturers as well along with shares in Oil producers who could only benefit from a more western friendly ruler in Iraq.......cynical moi? I ignore all US news reports as far too glossy and motivated by ratings rather than any real journalistic reporting of the facts....really you can't go too far wrong with the Beeb even though they are a bit stuck in the past and cautious.

[bluedolphin]

The first casualty of war is the truth.

[woodpam]

I'd agree with you Sft up to a point. I watched the coverage of Princess Diana's funeral on CNN and it was very interesting to hear the commentary from people without one eye on their future knighthood. It's that kind of stab at objectivity I'm after.