The Amateur Financier

If you’re a regular reader, and frequently follow the links that I provide, you might be aware that I’m a fan of Cracked.com.  Although a comedy site (and a pretty funny one to boot; I’ve laughed out loud to some of their articles on more than one occasion), they also generally have good, sometimes thought provoking articles.  I’ve even been inspired to write some of my articles here based on the articles they offer; my ‘Your Mind and Your Money‘ series was inspired by the Cracked article on ‘6 Logical Fallacies That Cost You Money Every Day‘, for example.

Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of Crack’s articles is that they are good at pointing out problems, but not so good at coming up with solutions.  This is to be expected, I suppose; pointing out human foolishness is much more fun than coming up with a ten step plan to fix the problem.  For example, they provide a list of 6 Subtle Ways The Media Disguises Bulls*** As Facts, but fail to give the reader thoughts on how readers can protect themselves from said bulls***.  (Although, simply knowing some of the underhanded tactics will hopefully help readers to spot them and resist them.)

Enter the Amateur Financier.  I’m not only going to pass on the ways that the media can bend facts to fit their preconceptions and possible agenda, but provide you ways to defend yourself.  With no more ado, let’s get that Bulls*** Detector fired up:

#6: Weasel Words

What It Is: Weasel words are words used to give the author (or reporter, or speaker) a way to express their opinions without having to take ownership of said opinion.  Attributing opinions to ’some’ or ‘many people’ or ‘the American public’ allows you to express your opinion (or set up a straw man against whom you can make a noble stand) without having to find a person or group that actually holds that position.

How to Defend Yourself: Whenever you hear or read someone attributing an opinion to a vaguely defined (if at all) group, ask yourself whether they’ve given any proof.  Given the huge number of surveys, polls, and opinion gathers out there, if there is a sizable group that believes the Earth is in the shape of a dodecahedron, for example, there should be some proof to cite to that effect.  If not, feel free to substitute ‘I’ (that is, the author, reporter, or commentator) or ‘the people I oppose’ for any weasel words you encounter.

#5: Implying Without Saying

What It Is: By mentioning two (or more) ideas together in a story, the media can take advantage of the natural human tendency to assume that the two things are linked. Saying ‘Hundreds become wealthy after reading The Amateur Financier’ implies that reading this blog caused the increase in wealth, whereas the truth is that reading the blog probably had a minimal effect on the gain in wealth.  (Not that you should stop reading, of course…)

How to Defend Yourself: The main problem is the same one I’ve discussed before, assuming (falsely) that correlation is the same as causation.  Remind yourself of the difference, and you’ll be less likely to read stories about teenagers going on rampages after playing video games and assume that the video games caused the rampage.  (Or that, say, in reports about politicians doing illegal/immoral activities, that being a politician caused the person to be less ethical.)

#4: Burying Inconvenient Facts

What It Is: Reality doesn’t always go the way we want, but by twisting what we show, we can make it appear differently.  So, I can say ‘Survey Shows The Amateur Financier Most Popular Personal Finance Blog’ without mentioning that the survey is of me, my mother and my fiancee.  If you don’t take the time to read far enough to catch that detail, the headline sounds pretty impressive.

How to Defend Yourself: Reading the entire article to ensure that there aren’t any qualifiers or other modifying statements that contradict the headline (or at least, make it less solid than it initially appeared) is one option, although given the deluge of information facing most of us, it’s not likely to be possible all the time.  A healthy level of skepticism about news in general (and news with provocative headlines in particular) will serve you well, especially when the headline attributes the claims to another source (study, survey, a particular group, etc); that’s another way, similar to our ‘weasel words’, for a journalist or other commentator to express their views without having to claim ownership of the opinion.

#3: Biased Photos

What It Is: They say a picture’s worth a thousand words; too bad so many of them are lies.  By picking and choosing among the available photos (and videos or audio clips) and selectively editing out useful details, a publication can choose to make a particular person look powerful, knowledgeable, and capable, or look foolish and incompetent.

How to Defend Yourself: After the initial burst of disgust, happiness, or patriotism (whatever emotion the media outlet was trying to spark), take a moment to stop and think about why the media chose that particular picture (or other piece of media).  They’re usually trying to support some thesis about the person or events in question, and not every picture represents a public figure’s true personality.  Think about all the pictures of you where you were looking less than your best, and cut public figures a little slack for not always being ready for the cameras.

#2: The Active Voice

What It Is: By selectively using either the active or passive voice in their headlines, the media can choose to blame the actors or give them a free pass.  For example, ‘Police shoot and kill man who was robbing bank’ (the active voice) puts the blame for the man’s death clearly on the police, while ‘Man shot and killed while robbing bank’ (the passive voice) leaves the question of who shot the man open for speculation (the bank guards, his partner, an armed civilian, etc.), implying that being shot and killed was a natural consequence of bank robbing.

How to Defend Yourself: This is another case where reading beyond the headline is your best friend in getting to the truth.  While the actor might be obscured in the attention-grabbing headline, it shouldn’t be long into the article before the actor that caused the results in the headline (in this case, shooting and death) is revealed.  (Although, keep point #4 in mind; the truth might be buried.)

#1: Guessing the Motives Instead of Reporting the Facts

What It Is: Trying to determine the rationale behind someone else’s actions forms quite a lot of modern reporting.  Rather than stating that ‘Obama supports a public health bill’, it becomes ‘Obama wants health bill to further big government agenda’; instead of ‘Republicans state costs as reason for opposition to bill’ it becomes ‘Republicans desperate to defend status quo and their corporate backers’.  In both cases, the latter example speculates on the motives behind the actions, rather than reporting what happened straight as in the former examples.

How to Defend Yourself: Unless there’s been news reports that I’ve missed, there’s currently no mind readers who exist outside of the occasional comic book character.  Thus, the only way to really know what someone is thinking is to have him or her tell you; if they (or their spokespeople, for the rich and powerful) don’t tell you directly, you simply can’t know.  (Even if they do tell you directly, I hope that you maintain enough skepticism to not take them solely at their word; reporters and journalists aren’t the only ones who try to tweak the truth.)  A healthy amount of doubt about the motives ascribed to any particular action, no matter who is doing the ascribing, will serve you well when reading the news.

There you have it, six ways the media can twist reporting to back a particular view point, and some advice on how to avoid falling into that trap.  Now go, go and feel free to expose yourself to some media with your new found knowledge of how it might be manipulating you.  Just don’t read too much at once; over exposure to that stuff isn’t good for you.

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