I try to steer clear of politics, because frankly, you get enough of that just about everywhere else.
Many “news types” have made it clear. They’re on this side, or the other. Who on earth is straddling the fence these days? That’s why I’m warning you at the very beginning. If you’re looking for someone to affirm your views, and condemn those you oppose, this blog will not make you happy.
I was at a family gathering over the holidays, and try as I might to keep the focus on new babies, football, and food, I was unsuccessful. Everybody wanted to talk about politics. “How long is this shutdown gonna last?” “Will that Mueller guy ever get finished with his investigation?” And of course, “Why don’t y’all news media people stop picking on our president?”
I don’t give myself all the credit for the political chatter. I have a strong feeling that’s what they were talking about before I got there, and I’m sure it continued after I left.
Because I report the news on TV each evening, I’m not allowed to have political opinions. Well, not publicly anyway. I vote every election, but news reporters are supposed to keep their opinions to themselves.
I’m old school. You know you’re old school when your senior class picture in the hallway of your old school has faded into a ghostly image.
I was brought up when TV networks, newspapers and magazines had clearly drawn lines between news and opinion. Those lines are blurred beyond recognition today. Who’s simply reading the news, and who’s out to change your opinion? That lady seems nice, well educated, and sharply dressed. Is she giving me information that’s down the middle of the plate? Or is she pitching to the far left, or the far right? If she is staking out a position, is she making that clear, or is she pretending to be impartial?
The answer is complicated. Sometimes it is as obvious as the nose on your face, but other times, it is opinion hidden under the guise of news. I do this for a living, and there are times I can’t tell the difference. One of the major networks, which I used to trust like a member of the family, had me fooled in 2016. They reported a political story in a very slanted manner, and it was not labeled as opinion, or commentary. I still don’t trust them.
In recent weeks, that umbrella term, “the news media” has taken its lumps. In some well publicized cases, those lumps are much deserved. In the frantic 24/7 race to be first, many news outlets have rushed to judgment with little regard for facts or details. On the local level, it would be like a newspaper running a front page story based on something the editor heard his neighbor’s cousin repeat outside the hardware store. Of course, an editor would never do that. So in this scenario, he would need a second source. Someone else repeated the rumor on Facebook, so now we can go with it!
By regurgitating stories from non-credible news organizations, and making split-second assumptions based on a snippet of video, many national news media outlets have been wiping egg off their collective faces. All the soap in the world won’t remove the goo, not anytime soon.
I can only speak for myself. I have always tried to report both sides of the story, and to be honest and accurate. When revealing the shortcomings and mistakes of those in power, this does not usually go over well in the school superintendent’s office, the sheriff’s department, City Hall, the Governor’s mansion, or the White House. A good journalist loses some friends along the way, but if he or she reports the truth, that is the price one must pay.
But you, the reader have some responsibility in this as well. If you are merely looking at a news channel or reading a newspaper to validate your own opinion, you will not learn, and you will not grow. One side is not totally good, and the other side is not totally evil. As with all humans, the answer is somewhere in between, and it is up to you and me to put aside our partisanship and seek truth.
Amid all the clutter on Facebook recently, a friend wrote the wisest commentary I have read about this issue. He wrote, “We have become a culture more interested in feeling something strongly, than understanding anything more fully.”
I’m sorry I can’t take your side, but I don’t apologize for it. I could have taken the easy route, and made at least half of my readers happy, but I would rather stay here in the middle and listen to both sides. I just might learn something.
