What To Believe?

"We never let the truth interfere with a good story."

           - Charlie Jones, sportscaster, writer

Ralph Peters, of the New York Post, has written a column about how the media shapes reality in today's world.  It's worth a read.  The money quote:

"The truth is that today's media shape reality--often for the worse.  A journalist will tell you , sometimes sincerely, that he or she only reports the facts.  That's never quite the truth.  And it's often an outright lie."

I believe that anyone who broadcasts or writes has an agenda.  I have one, Fox does, CNN does, we all do.  That agenda usually manifests itself in the material we are presenting even when we attempt to conceal it.  And while we have our agendas, we often deny that we do, even when presented with hard evidence to the contrary.  "Fair and balanced," that's our credo. 

Are there any watchdogs out there?  Yes, there are. 

Networks and talk radio hosts police each other, and we have editors and peer review for journalists.  But the people who I think are doing the best job of exposing dishonest reporting in the media today are those who write weblogs. They're having a very positive impact on this problem and will continue to gain influence as more and more of them join the fray. 

In the meantime, take everything you listen to, watch, or read with a grain of salt, because some of it simply isn't true. 

On 10/08/03 I wrote about Schwarzenegger winning the California governorship.  I read his plans for the state on Paul Muller's weblog, Heretical Ideas.  They're pretty impressive.  You may want to take a look.