We don’t always believe what we see or read

Media is often guilty of character assassination, writes Dennis Fitzgerald from Melbourne.

The media – at least the populist papers and social media – in Australia is abuzz with the eviction/walkout of three women from the slightly vacuous The Bachelor show.

A summary appears in tabloid papers and on TV ads, so there is little need to face the mental challenge of actually watching it.

The three were shown as being rather unpleasant people involved in bullying others, although they all claim that this was not an accurate portrayal. Most people believe what they see in all forms of the media, so they have been tagged with this image.

The worrying part is that they may trade on this to start careers on TV in similar shows, or on lightweight “morning news” shows.

There is a precedent for this, with other participants establishing successful media careers, although they were more positively presented and seem to be nice people.

How can anyone build a career on being nasty and saying nasty things, except perhaps as politicians or world leaders? What we need is people who build their futures on their positive characteristics and skills.

Fortunately, a number of people have warned us of the fake news and failings in the media, so that we do not always believe what we see.