What happens when you trust an authority other than yourself to be the source of truth? You tend to lose the truth – to varying extents, as dependent on your source of (mis)information. The Buddha’s advice of personal investigation to know and see the truth makes great sense. In the movie ‘Breaking News’, both the supposedly good (police) and the bad (thieves) skilfully use the media to edit and share the version of the truth as they see best fits their purpose – the first to garner support and public ‘trust’ (oh, the irony!) and the latter empathy as the underdog.
Sometimes, the most trusted might be the most taken for granted. Even supposedly ‘neutral’ media tends to tell truths that benefits itself the most – so that it can thrive… and this means they might succumb to the powers that be to be politically correct; instead of simply correct. The media is just a medium of information; it is not always the channel through which the whole truth is delivered.
Even ‘investigative’ journalists might cook up news as publicity stunts. There is a whole world of difference between reporting and making news. I do wonder how one can be a good journalist with true integrity without offering one’s honest take on how to view or resolve that reported. This would make one become part of the news, changing the situation as one reports it. Sounds like quantum physics – where there are no observers who are not participants in that observed too. Can a dedicated activist be a fair journalist with a conscience over the same issue? The movie ‘Beyond a Reasonable Doubt’ explores this issue too.
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