Today, truth is a commodity for sale. Media machines spin the news to support their views. Earlier today I was reading a NYT article, which essentially critiqued the UN for taking a pro-Israel stance on the issue of the West Gaza blockade. The article focused heavily on the admonitions over the commando raid on a boat, but barely mentioned that the issue was not the raid but the force used (though armed men on a non-military vessel are breaching maritime law and are technically pirates, see Wikipedia link for the original incident) was excessive. They went so far as to imply that "the report takes a broadly sympathetic view of Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza", implying that the UN was somehow wrong or emotionally motivated. This stand alone sentence serves to make the reader feel that the UN was unwise in their decision, but provides no rational basis. On NPR, a full paragraph of a five paragraph article states (and poorly, since there is a typo changing a word (legal) to a word that means the opposite (illegal)) Pakistan's stance, and then blatantly lies, saying that Israel does not want to apologize (which is incorrect- Israel's stance (according to the NYT article that actually addressed the topic in depth, if slantingly) was of regret and willingness to make reparations, but not of full apology, a significant difference. Also, none of the news sources reference the "three other ships, [on which] activists showed passive resistance, which [were] suppressed by Israeli forces without deaths or severe injuries, and two other boats were taken without incident. The ships were subsequently towed to Israel, where all people aboard were detained awaiting deportation."
Admittedly, I've only focused on one issue and a few news sources, but these cases are widespread and rampant. Next time you read the news, try to find phrases and paragraphs that support yellow journalism, and you'll find that a lot of the facts that the media machine declares are not really true at all, but rather the opinion of the editors, authors, or outlets that publish them. I'm not saying not to read the news, but I'm saying don't be misled, because every article I've found in recent history has had a bias in one direction or another. Fortunately, some of these have been editorials, but the line between opinion and news has been blurred too far lately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/01/140125112/u-n-panel-finds-israels-naval-blockade-legal-but-flotilla-raid-excessive?ft=1&f=1001
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/world/middleeast/02flotilla.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=UN&st=cse
Edits are for grammar, feel free to check the articles for context.
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