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Media Matters
Truth and Consequently…
In this campaign, “random acts of journalism” are disappearing.
My Swiss friend, Reuben Leuchter, was offered a position at a Jewish institution of higher learning which was known to be heavily in debt. Before responding, he checked with an acquaintance who was a former employee of that school. The fellow told him, “Take the job and you’ll be fine, but just remember one thing. No matter how inconvenient it is for you to come in on payday, you must be there to pick up your check in person on that day.”
“Really? Why?” my friend wondered.
“Because on payday it’s salary and salary comes first, as the Bible says. But a day later it’s just a new debt and then you go to the back of the line!”
That piquant observation provides an insight which is key to understanding the press and its infrequent flirtations with the truth. Once again we see how the story of a horrible bungle by the Obama administration has turned into a referendum on whether Mitt Romney was too quick to criticize. As observers we are astonished by this persistent commitment of a free press to voluntarily corrupt truth in favor of a particular political viewpoint.
Truth is the only path to knowledge, to understanding, to growth, to correction, to acceptance, to all good things. In a free society, we rely desperately on reporters to deliver the news so we can assess just where we are at any given moment. We cannot be in all places at all times but some rootless vagabond who works for NBC can, even as he dreams of someday sitting in one place every night next to a beautiful anchorwoman. That geek has a sacred duty to bring us the truth without fear or favor. Unfortunately, like most sacred duties, that one is honored these days in the breach.
Yet here and there the power of truth forces it to the surface. In what Rush Limbaugh has taken to calling “random acts of journalism” we are periodically treated to flashes of dazzling accuracy in media. Some of the most reliable leftist outposts can suddenly, shockingly, tell some truth.
But as my friend’s story reminds us, the truth can only be found on the first day. Particularly on the Internet, where news finds its way immediately, we get one screen shot of reality before the murk machine begins its muddying. I guess the first day it’s news but the second day it’s analysis, the first day it’s fact and henceforth it is interpretation.
One of the most fascinating culprits in this area is Associated Press headline writing. Follow any AP story on your favorite news site and watch the headline morph. Usually it starts out something like GLOOMY JOB REPORT WEIGHING ON STOCKS. After a while it becomes EMPLOYMENT FIGURES GOOD BUT LESS THAN EXPECTED. Finally it settles in at JOB REPORT POINTS TO PATTERN OF LONG-TERM RECOVERY.
In the Egypt and Libya story several days ago, this approach was seen clearly. The initial reports told of the chaos at the embassies, the cluelessness of diplomatic staff and the misguided effort to have the embassies offer negative reviews of the Muhammed movie as a strategy to avoid fire in the theater of operations. We even read that the rioters chanted, “Obama, we are all Osamas now.”
This inflammatory material, with its bad vibe for the Obama-Clinton foreign policy brain trust, has been broomed now in favor of the revisionist version. It’s all about Mitt having a fit, Mitt being in a snit, Mitt picking a nit. The second coming of Jimmy Carter has just piled up four corpses in the midst of its Arab Springtime but the only culprit who has been apprehended was Willard Romney, using his gangsta name of “Mitt.”
Mock me if you will but I still cling to a naïve hope that a generation of reporters can be taught to love truth more than whatever blandishments are offered by its competitors. For now we have to settle for peeks into those little windows of time where the wash is clean and fresh, before the spin cycle begins.
In parting, I should mention that a friend of mine asked the late Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman, a genius scholar and wit, whether historians could be trusted to convey the past accurately. He answered: “If the papers are already lying about what happened yesterday, what hope is there of the truth being told a hundred years later?”
Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Ruth Homnick, a lover of truth, on the 44th anniversary of her passing.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
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Aristocat| 9.14.12 @ 6:30AM
The questions asked Romney by the media after the murder of our diplomats were outrageous. Romney was right to speak out and right in what he said.
Aristocat| 9.14.12 @ 6:41AM
"The Insane MSM Questions Romney Faced at his press conference:
1. Reporter brings up that Romney had a “toughly worded statement last night,” and asks, “Do you regret the tone at all given what we know now?”
2. “Do you think, though, coming so soon after the events really had unfolded over night was appropriate, to be weighing in on this as this crisis was unfolding in real time?” Follow-up: “What did the White House do wrong then, Gov. Romney, if they put out a statement saying they disagreed with it?”
3. “The world is watching. Isn’t this itself a mixed signal when you criticize the administration at a time that Americans are being killed? Shouldn’t politics stop for this?”
4. “Some people have said that you jumped the gun a little bit in putting that statement out last night and that you should have waited until more details were available. Do you regret having that statement come out so early before we learned about all of the things that were happening?”
5. “If you had known last night that the ambassador had died, and obviously, I’m gathering you did not know . . . if you had known that the ambassador had died, would you have issued such a strongly-issued statement?”
6. Reporter comments that Romney is running on his “economic know-how and private sector experience..."
Reporters were caught on an open mike planning their attacks on Romney.
Appleby| 9.14.12 @ 6:49AM
"What is truth?" said Pontius Pilate.
Joellen| 9.14.12 @ 7:28AM
Add to this list, as I jump over from another article, PEGGY NOONAN. I can expect the utter lies and propagander from the commie left, but it is eminiently worse when one of your "own" jump in on the bandwagon. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Noonan, OReilly, etc. want to be respected by both sides - which they still havent figured out - they are respected by neither.
Von Mises Jr| 9.14.12 @ 9:21AM
Robert Bae is a Scientist that ousted Secretary Salazar and EPA Administrator Carol Browning for changing the recommendation on the Gulf Drilling Report.
If you search his name on Yahoo, it is Soviet-like as if he never existed. If you search the report, his name is apparently scrubbed. Or was I dreaming?
Apparently in "1984" fashion, he has disappeared down the memory hole.
The news about Libya and Egypt are mostly coming from foreign press. They are not paid to lie for the United States. They actually benefit by telling the truth since they get kudos in their respective countries.
If you don't get some cahones and stand up for your liberty, your great-grandchildren may find your lifestyle of freedom has been erased from history.
83champ| 9.14.12 @ 10:15AM
I googled Robert Bae and got a urologist in Newport Beach, CA
Von Mises Jr| 9.14.12 @ 11:23AM
And you get stories about BAE the corporation. Bob may be in ANWAR like the Soviets assigned such people to Siberia for 12 years.
RFisher66| 9.14.12 @ 10:02AM
This article is a perfect answer to the question of why are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, et al so hated. Because they dare to tell the truth and to call out the Left Wing Media when they lie, which is often. The Left can never dispute what these men say so instead they turn to the age old trick of name calling and personal attack. The White House press corps has become nothing more than a bad joke and the PR arm of the Democrat Party.
MikeBee| 9.14.12 @ 10:40AM
Mr. Homnick,
Just as the radical Muslims will not cease their radical actions until they cease being brainwashed by their religion, the U.S. media will not cease their support of left-wing concepts and leaders and denigration of right-wing concepts and leaders until they cease being brainwashed in college. Journalists today are taught by their college professors that they can make society better by using the pen. They are also taught by these same professors what is good for society and what is not: left-wing liberalism - Good; right-wing conservatism - Evil. Journalists are encouraged to use their skills not to report Truth, but to make society "better." This situation will not turn around until the colleges are rid of all these radical, left-wing professors.
PolishKnight| 9.14.12 @ 11:49AM
Facebook is fascinating because a cross sector of people I know, from various places (high school, college, travels, co-workers, friends of my wife, etc.) post political opinions out where they know a lot of their friends disagree with it. Anyways, I read one post where a well-educated woman friend repeated a claim with a chart that Obama has spent "1/10th" as much as GWB during this term so far.
Obviously, Obama is NOT spending only 1/10th as much as GW so it's obvious that that there has to be some kind of rationalization that this is GW "approved" spending that Obama signed off on which doesn't count, etc. but that rationalization isn't presented by the woman. She just repeats it without thinking about the logic. It's like saying that the rainforest has less actual rain than a desert or something like that and expecting people to swallow it whole.
Anyways, this brings to mind what the Rabbi said about people lying a hundred years from now what happened. They don't need to. People are already finding ways to lie to themselves for whatever reason. It's amazing.
Martin kzovich| 9.15.12 @ 7:07AM
I do not read any News Papers or magazines, I watch very limited amount of news on TV entire FOX and even they make be barf frequently. Mostly from internet. And then again I go to many sites to peruse. That is the result of the situation you have written about.
Fiscal| 9.17.12 @ 8:10AM
You're not really saying that Rush, Fox, and Amspec tells the "truth", are you? That's why all of you are called "commentators" and not "journalists". The same is also true of MSNBC, by the way.
The fact is that "truth" is not black and white, it is grey. Each side takes a small element of the "truth", mostly on complicated issues, and inflates the relative importance of that "factlet" based on their ideologies.
For example, we actually know from macroeconomic data that tax cuts do NOT stimulate the economy. People point to Reagan and talk about GDP growth under him but neglect to point out that we had greater GDP growth under the tax increases of Clinton or that Reagan actually raised taxes 11 times. The left talks about increasing poverty and lowering healthcare but neglects to talk about how we pay for it and lies that everything will be all right in the future.
There are places that attempt to get at the truth like Politifact, but unless their analysis aligns with your particular ideology, their results are maligned.
Fiscal| 9.17.12 @ 8:10AM
The biggest problem in getting at the truth is that we have turned into a nation of uneducated, ideological servants that only listen to sources that agree with us rather than do any analysis ourselves. Probably, most of you just listen to Rush, Hannity, and Fox and lose total perspective that way.
Here's my suggestion: Listen primarily to sources where you disagree to balance your perspective. If you hear something you don't believe, do the research yourself. Don't believe anything you hear from a commentator. If you disagree with Politifact on a number of issues, you are most certainly biased and are really not looking for the truth -- only irrational support for your particular ideology.