In fact applying this system over time will just shift your view of the world toward whichever “side” is willing to tell more extreme lies.
Source A: An abused elephant got revenge on its handlers today, striking back and making a break for freedom.
Source B: Elephant attack! 5 gravely injured, including a mother of 3, as a crazed elephant breaks loose. Authorities still investigating.
Source C: Minister for Elephants grilled over lax elephant regulations. Angry citizens are demanding to know why legislation had not been put in place to prevent this tragedy.
My take away: Something happened, people got hurt, an elephant was involved.
Me at the water cooler: You hear about the elephant thing? Pretty crazy right.
what I do is take the things that are agreed on by most organisations as probably true, and disregard the rest
The "take things that are agreed on by most media organisations as probably true, and disregard the rest" strategy has had profoundly negative effects throughout history, such as in China, the Soviet Bloc before 1991, the USA through the 1960s, and Germany in the 1930s.
I specifically included the water cooler part because that's what Generic News is for me. Conversation fodder and entertainment. I can live with even the filtered down information I take from it being possibly wrong.