my mother grew up in texas. she worked on the high school news paper selling advertising. of course she had help in doing so. world-renowned pianist, van cliburn, was her sales partner. even though she sold advertising space for the paper versus actual writing and reporting for the paper, she was a student of journalism and she knew what good writing and reporting was. i too, was a student of journalism and did my share of writing but that was a long time ago. regardless of years gone by since last either my mother or i have written anything for public consumption, we both agreed that one of the very first and foremost basics or, rather, "laws" of reporting is:
REPORT ONLY THE FACTS!
we all know, or at least I HOPE we do, that the press in this country, and all around the globe for that matter, is slanted this way or that depending the mind-set of the individual reporter, a reporting agency's philosophy, or agenda of either, etc . right? we all know this, RIGHT? your local nightly news to the left and FOXNews to the right. knowing that, you have to take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt. right?
RIGHT!
one such provider of information, or might i say, genre of information is the entertainment rags like THE ENQUIRER or THE STAR or what have you. sure, it's entertaining for millions of dim-wits, sensationalized for the quick and easy point-of-sale purchase - this is the "waiting-in-the-checkout-line" spontaneous purchase, for you dim-wits, and, personally, i believe a terrific and lucrative business simply because a dim-wit is born every minute. this genre of reporting is so slanted - not to the left or to the right like the above, but rather straight down "unbelievable alley".
for me, i expect daily news papers, local and national news, online sources for information such as reportings from the biggest, in-your-face, daily-go-to's for millions of people, to be slanted this way or that, but to be relatively on the up-and-up...meaning what they're reporting is not just a bunch of falsities for dim-witted, spontaneous buyers/believers. it is, on most all accounts....
ACCOUNTABLE!
the bare bones of an unfolding story may change, but an initial reporting of what's happening in the world is to be...
...FACTUAL!
ESPECIALLY...
...when you're talking about a story that came out for public consumption just yesterday. an unfolding story of which all the facts were not completely known but the basics of which you'd expect to be true....not just TRUE but spot-on true without a doubt simply because of the seriousness of the story.
the story i'm referring to is that of a mass grave found in liberty, texas.
my mother told me the basics of this sickening and devastating story after having read about it on MSN'S news site yesterday. now today, just moments ago, she read to me from our local newspaper that none of this was true. a PSYCHIC called in with a "tip". but rather than verify this information, local police authorities and the Feds all swoop in like it was some massively destructive and newsworthy national disaster. MSN and all the biggest news reporting agencies across the nation are reporting this story. just GOOGLE "liberty, texas mass grave" and see how many "hits" you get. you'd think that in an unfolding story such as this that, sure, the factoids have not yet been verified yet but there is one fact: a mass grave has been seen, discovered, found, verified, ....whatever ....AND IT ....IS...SO...even if no other information be verified at this time. WELL JESUS JEHOSHAPHAT! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO DUE DILLIGENCE???
AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED...NOW...MSN's NEWS, AOL, CNN, FOX, XYZ, PPP, ZZZ, WHETHER IT BE DIGITAL, NEWSPAPER, MAGAZINE, RADIO, BILLBOARD, INFOMERCIAL, PAMPHLETS DROPPED FROM AN AIRPLANE, WORD-OF-MOUTH, MORSE CODE, EN CRYPTIC 6TH DIMENSIONAL LIGHT MESSAGES FROM OUTTER SPACE....WHATEVER, I SIMPLY HAVE TO THINK OF IT AS DIM-WITTED, UNBELIEVABLE, UNACCOUNTABLE REPORTING THAT I'VE COME TO EXPECT FROM PLACES LIKE THE ENQUIRER. IN FACT, I NOW PLACE THE ENQUIRER ABOVE ALL OTHER NEWS REPORTING AGENCIES BECAUSE THEY AT LEAST KNOW THAT THEY ARE PROVIDING UNVERIFIED, HOAKY, UNBELIEVABLE SENSATIONALIZED STORIES WHERE AS NATIONAL/LOCAL SUPPOSEDLY REPUTABLE/BELIEVABLE AGENCIES HAVE THE AUDACITY TO PUT OUT THIS KIND OF GARBAGE WITHOUT EVEN VERIFYING THE ONE BASIC TRUTH OF THE MATTER. INSTEAD, THEY ALL REPORTED....ALL OF THEM.....ALL....OF....THEM...REPORTED THIS STORY WITHOUT VERIFYING A DAMN THING AND THAT IS CARELESS, INSENSITIVE, RECKLESS AND JUST PLAIN BAD, SHAMEFUL AND AWFUL TO THE BONE JOURNALISM...IF YOU CAN EVEN CALL IT JOURNALISM. IN FACT, IT BECKONS ON THE EDGE OF DOWNRIGHT INHUMANE! TO REPORT THIS KIND OF A STORY, TAKING NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REPORTING FACTS FIRST ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTS ME.
