By Dan Lenard
Buffalo, NY – Thomas Jefferson said: "An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight." In other words, if you don't have historical context, and general cultural literacy, it's easy to pull the wool over your eyes. Jefferson of course was pushing the idea of public education. He also wanted people to be able to distinguish fact from fiction.
As the popular clothing store slogan goes, "An educated consumer is our best customer." We are all news consumers. We get a constant barrage of news from all sides, TV, Radio, the Paper, Magazines and now, in an ever increasing wave, the Internet. What troubles me, and from what I hear from everyone, is that the news is biased one way or another depending on which news outlet you're talking about.
After observing the news as a professional and a consumer over the past few years, I can unequivocally comment that I believe that statement wholly. The use of language, the omission of pertinent facts, the lack of historical context and in some cases outright fraud, makes much of the news we consume today, completely unreliable. I say this from a neutral position. Many, but not all news organizations seem to be pushing an agenda, Some conservative, some liberal and some, who knows where? Add to that, the endless stream of e-mails many of us get from our friends and contacts around the country and around the world asking us to read and forward this article or that from some off mainline publication. Where is the truth?
As news consumers, we need to take possession of the truth. By this I mean to take the responsibility to seek the truth. I'm suggesting that in order to have reliable information regarding a news story, one must not accept something at face value and to be proactive to seek various sources of information to verify and get the whole story. Reporters are supposed to do this, and most do. Even with that, I find serious omissions. How many times have you heard or seen a report on the air and shouted back, "What about this or that?" like the reporter can hear you. Ok, maybe I'm the only one who does that.
Now I realize this is time consuming and we have so little time to even make dinner these days. But, to be a truly informed citizen, you have to take the time. Compare stories, look for conflicting facts. Ask the same questions a reporter would, who, what, why, when and where. Read the whole story. Many times a sensational headline is completely contradicted by paragraphs at the end. A perfect example was a story several months ago regarding Iran forcing Iranian Jews to wear yellow stars. Now I have plenty of reason to dislike Iran, but when you read the entire story, the sources were some Iranian ex-patriots in Toronto, and follow-up stories clearly showed they were omitting and manipulating facts for political reasons. The scary part was, the story made national headlines.
Other sources are those offbeat articles people send you from various blogs and foreign publications. Some very informed people are doing a great deal of worthwhile observation and research in their jammies, then again, some are making it up as they go along. The same rules apply.
Public opinion is created by the news. Owners of media outlets want to influence you for their various political and economic reasons and are carefully manipulating what you read and hear. Become an educated and savvy news consumer. Check the facts against what you know. Always check to see if a story has the Ring of Truth.
"Looking Outside the Box" with veteran broadcaster and professional narrator Dan Lenard is a monthly feature of WBFO News.
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