I try to stay away from discussing the news on this blog, but it\u2019s becoming harder and harder to ignore some of the insanity that seems to be going on all around us. I read an article yesterday about a poll that had been taken asking people to pick the first word (one word) that came to mind when the President\u2019s name was mentioned. I\u2019m sure this poll, like most, was biased to some degree, but the list of words was pretty extensive, and none of them was flattering. One word that didn\u2019t make the list was \u201ctruth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course that got me to thinking about truth\u2026 what the heck is truth anyhow? Usually I go to the dictionary for a definition and then go from there, but it seems to me that truth is simply the way things really<\/em> are. Obviously, that\u2019s an over simplification, especially today\u2026 some people think there is no absolute truth \u2014 truth for them is simply what they think. Actually, we all live our lives based on things we think, or believe, are true. We get into elevators that we believe will go up \u2014 or down, we get on airplanes we believe will fly, we go to stadiums believing the game will be played\u2026. It appears to me that one of the problems facing politics and the news media today is, for lack of a better word, ideology. The news media often simply omits any news that they don\u2019t like or agree with. So I think answer to the question on Time\u2019s cover (Is Truth Dead?) is no, but it\u2019s maybe close to being on life support\u2026 I guess truth, like most other things, will remain subjective, even though I don\u2019t believe truth is<\/em> subjective. Winston Churchill once stated, \u201cMen occasionally stumble over the truth, but most them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.\u201d That seems to be about where we are\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I try to stay away from discussing the news on this blog, but it\u2019s becoming harder and harder to ignore some of the insanity that seems to be going on all around us. I read an article yesterday about a … Continue reading
\nTime<\/em> magazine published an issue fairly recently with no picture on the cover, only the words \u201cIs Truth Dead?\u201d\u00a0 One of the articles in that issue was titled, \u201cCan Trump Handle the Truth\u201d and contained an itemized list of a lot of the untruths tweeted by the President and floating around his administration. Seems like since January, we\u2019ve read and heard mostly about \u201cfake\u201d news almost constantly\u2026 so much so, that it\u2019s truly hard to distinguish \u201creal\u201d from \u201cfake.\u201d The TV program 60 Minutes<\/em> devoted part of a recent program to fake news and interviewed a number of people that deliberately distribute fake news. Obviously Facebook and social media sites are a prime target of fake news, but some amount makes its way into the mainstream media. Interestingly, the program concluded that it wasn\u2019t the uneducated that were most likely to believe these things, it was the college educated!<\/p>\n
\nI took a couple of journalism courses in college and one of the first basic rules that was stressed, was the necessity to distinguish between reporting and editorializing. That line seems to have become very, very blurred lately.<\/p>\n
\nI ran across a quote a few days ago and I\u2019m sorry I don\u2019t know who to contribute it to, but I think it\u2019s very appropriate for today: \u201cAbove all, don\u2019t lie to yourself. the man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n