Comments on: A Christmas legend, or a licence to lie?

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:21:38 +0000

To Beyond Words

Unfortunately, in the UK there is less regional press that publishes much in the way of national news. I doubt that the Archbishop’s comments made it into my local paper, school closures and Christmas shopping are more likely to sell than religion any day. However, had they, and had they been misinterpreted I would have had more opportunity to correct them than with a national newspaper.

I’m looking forward to watching your elections though.

By: Beyond Words

Beyond Words — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:20:50 +0000

Apology accepted! I can understand your frustatration. Thankfully, my editor would never let me get by with such malarky even if I had the chutzpah to try it.

Speaking of spin politics, I live in Iowa and we’re two weeks away from the “first in the nation” caucus. It’s pretty hard to practice Philippians 4:8 with all the intra-party rhetorical bludgeoning going on. I can’t imagine how nasty it’s going to get when we get down to two candidates from opposite parties. I’m about ready to become an anarchist.

By: doug

doug — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:39:22 +0000

Okay, I admit I might have been a little unfair to speak as though all journalists do this - it is indeed another meta-narrative. Unfortunately, it has become all too true in my experience, even in many local papers in the UK, as well as on the big national ones. It seems to be part of their competing for a declining readership in a sound-bite culture. There also seems to be a culture where a journalist judges their success by whether other journalists pick up the story they broke, and run it with the original spin. If anyone deplores the culture of spin in politics today, I’m afraid it has grown out of a necessary attempt to get a pre-emptive spin in before the media puts a negative one on it. Apologies to those who actually report the news instead of try to make it.

By: mark goodacre

mark goodacre — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:27:22 +0000

Excellent post, Doug. I may post on the story myself if I get a moment in amongst packing during the day. I listened to the interview and was actually struck by how conservative the archbishop was. I did begin to wonder, while listening, whether papers would be listening out to warp his remarks into something he is not saying (e.g. as the Sunday Telegraph did with his remarks on the Tsunami three years ago), and lo and behold, here we go again. It is a model of how little one can trust many (not all) journalists. If they are this sloppy in an area we actually know something about, how far can we trust them in areas where we do not have the requisite expertise?

By: Drew

Drew — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:50:17 +0000

Journalists work with extremes. Any position usually must conform to one or the other pole in order to create a wonderfully static dialectic. It is clarity at the expense of truth since it distorts the intent of the speaker. This is what media has come to especially in the US as well. So-called news programs are loaded with pundits who actually create polarity of positions by giving “balance”. What this balance consists of is a definition of poles that likely do not exist but are fabricated in order to stir up controversy. Why? Ratings and advertising. The more controversy you can stir up by getting folks to disagree about everything, the more people will sit back and not only watch the fight, but participate in it as well. More viewers, more publicity, more advertising dollars. This is why I consume publicly funded and non-profit news sources like National Public Radio and even the Christian Science Monitor. US sources like Fox and MSNBC spread fictions more than meaningful reflections of reality.

By: Beyond Words

Beyond Words — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:48:14 +0000

Wow, Doug. I’m stunned that you would categorically castigate journalists as if they are all cut from the same rotten cloth. Maybe the ones writing for the big, liberal rags have devolved into cretins, but many of us write for papers in small cities where the community depends on us to tell its stories. We are laboring long hours for little pay to get the truth out there. I find my biggest rewards when I go into a church and see a story I wrote cut out and pinned to the bulletin board–or when I learn my reporting on a controversial topic provoked city leaders to call a special council meeting to address a need–or when I get a chance to dig into what’s really going on at the school board meetings so I can douse ugly rumors with the truth. There is no standard template for these stories. And the people in my community hold me accountable.

By: Chris Ward

Chris Ward — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:33:26 +0000

Hi. Good blog … interesting and challanging.

Two thoughts have sprung to mind as I reflected on this post:

1. Is “he’s a journalist, so I expect him to entirely ignore the facts even when they’re pointed out to him” a meta-narrative?

2. I understand a little better the frustrations polititians must feel with mis-reporting that leads them to allow spin-doctors to dictate policy.

Chris