Critical thinging is paramount.

The news media has good visuals on all devices.

I heard an ABC journo tell me once that the first line collects facts, sub-editors trim the facts, an editor further distorts the facts to increase sensationalism and impact. And before going live or printing, the end piece is almost indistinguishable from the initial story besides names and dates. And this was a public broadcaster.

Governments in Australia release bad news stories on football grand final days or our Annual Melbourne Cup Day when people are on a high. They do this to minimise impact.

Donald Trump has such an enormous following due to coverage of his sensationalist ravings. They perfectly fit clickbait such as: 'In four more years you won't need to worry about things like voting.' Or, the earlier Covid debacle that left the USA with more Covid cases and deaths than most other countries, due to Trump saying it was no worse than the flu, or that you could inject yourself with bleach to cure it.

Any journalist with 3 braincells new this was rubbish, but it made big headlines, sold their media, had them promoted and gave We The People lots to talk about.

Fact checking has revealed 87% lies and distortions with celebrities, influencers and politicions on items half of America believe to be the gospel truth.

American children grew up believing that their president was an honourable, virtuous man with impeccable standards.

Next year, a fraudster and convicted fellon who bragged about raping women and grabbing the pussies of any woman when he felt like it, may be elected to the Presidency again.

I think when reading the media we need to question everything for validity.

To not assume what we read is real when a proportion of it is purely fictional, would be ridiculous.