This week there has been several media references to racial biases. One reference related the event of Representative Joe Wilson or as I call him,"Joe the Heckler," yelling "You Lie" during President Obama's health care speech as having racial motivation behind it. Personally, I cannot attribute anything about "You Lie" as racial other than the fact that the media bought into it because of former President Jimmy Carter declaring it was racial. I think that the media could have passed this into a back page story, but instead decided to inform us to get a slant on a news story, and this is where the lying occurs.
I am not biased against the media! During college I was a stringer reporter for the city newspaper. (I could just leave my statement at that, but it would be out of context because it doesn't contain all the facts) The facts are: I only wrote 2 very small articles and they were almost completely rewritten by my editor, because I apparently was that bad! CLEARLY...It was nice of him to even pay me!
In college I took a few journalism classes and the gist of what I can remember learning carried an overall tone of: keep your facts straight, tell the truth and be totally unbiased. I missed the class called Blowing Facts and Figures Out of Proportion 101. Back then that was called Creative Writing!
In regards to the current racial references--I don't have all the answers to making all people "respecters of persons"--but, where our President stands? I have one thing to say, he is our current President--I did not vote for him (I liked the policies of another candidate.) But, to define President Obama as our "black" President is mistaken. What I believe to be a true way of looking at any President, regardless of his or her background, is not the "black" President or the "white" President or the "female" President, but the United States President with the dignity and respect that office should receive.
In order for the issues to succeed, (These issues of health care reform, the economy, social security and the environment to just name a few) I believe it is the social responsibility of the media, politicians and citizens to concentrate on the true facts by not sensationalizing, exaggerating, lying and deceiving for gain. These gains of power, money or slanting a story to sell are the lies.
The truth is that we live in a free country with a wealth of possibilities for us, and even if a few continue to condone and support the fabrications and deceptions--we could lose our freedom in these lies. I believe the media could be the interpreter's of this possibility and loss of our freedoms if they do not become more socially responsible. And...we as citizens need to search out the truth--no matter the difficulty--so that we can be socially responsible for our future.
I am sorry that "Joe the Heckler" has been given so much notoriety--he did a distasteful thing. But, I am more sorry for those of us who are trying to search out the truth from the lies in the internet, cable or paper media so that we can understand a wide range of policies and choices that our government is making which can and will affect us!
Wanted you to know I'm reading! And I too am puzzled by how quickly the journalism standards of the classroom degenerate into the profit-oriented standards of commercial media. The end result seems to be that Americans are polarized into two main camps that have nothing to do with our political views: we are either unquestioning idealists who take the media's word as truth (with little knowledge of the source of that information), or we are cynics who question everything we read because we just don't trust the motives behind the story! Keep up the blogging! I believe in you! :) Jeremy
ReplyDelete