Myths, Lies and Straight Talk
A List of 10 Media-Fed Myths

Commentary
By JOHN STOSSEL

Dec. 30, 2005 — Can going out in the cold give you a cold? Are we losing our national forests? Can money buy happiness? You may be among the many who would answer yes to these questions. You'd be wrong. There are a lot of popularly held beliefs out there that simply aren't true. Yet the media tend to report on many of them as though they were hard facts.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123606

Awesome story. I can't remember where I got the link.

2 thoughts on “”

  1. Well now, these two I find particularly fascinating…

    "MYTH #7 — The World Is Getting Too Crowded

    …The world population today is more than 6 billion. It seems like so many people. But who says it's "too many?"

    …But there's no space problem. Our planet is huge. In fact we could take the entire world population and move everyone to the state of Texas, and the population density there would still be less than that of New York City."

    and

    "MYTH # 5 — Guns Are Always Bad for Us

    America is notorious for its culture of gun violence. Guns sometimes do cause terrible harm, and many kids are killed every year in gun accidents. But public service announcements and news stories make it seem as if the accidents kill thousands of kids every year.

    …A Justice Department study confirmed what the prisoners said. But get this: the felons say that the thing they fear the most is not the police, not time in prison, but, you, another American who might be armed.

    …But surprise, 36 states already have concealed carry laws; and not one reported an upsurge in gun crime."

  2. John Stossel is generally one of the more fair-minded investigative reporters out there. I always appreciate reading what he writes.

    Regarding the forest situation, at least in Michigan, we could afford to cut more trees. Right now most of the forests on state and federal land are at their mature, or climax phase of succession. Climax forests actually support less wildlife and lower biodiversity than forests which are still growing to that phase. About the only thing I see in the climax jackpine forests on state land are squirrels, songbirds and a few crows. Occasionally deer move through the forest on their way to cover or forage, but that's it.

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