Summation: Auren Hoffman: Truth in the Electronic Age

with Auren Hoffman
October 6, 1997

Truth in the Electronic Age
The media does not have the last word
by Auren Hoffman
People are too quick to accept someone's word as truth in today's world of moving electrons and instant media. Every television station, newspaper, magazine, and radio show is biased. There is no such thing as objective, nonpartisan reporting. Media should be biased - but they should be forthcoming about the bias.
CNN news reports always defend Clinton at any cost while the Wall Street Journal can always find the up-side to a Republican folly. The Washington Times and the Washington Post usually report on the same story in two very different ways. But the average reader, watcher, or listener is not always aware of this. The average Joe needs to be told that what the media reports, and how it reports, reflects upon the personal views of those who are doing the reporting (or those who own the media).
Listening to news reports is almost like overhearing a locker-room conversation about Sally sleeping with the football team and Jim moonlighting as a male stripper. There is probably some truth to the report but rarely is it fully accurate. Sally probably slept with only one football player and Jim probably said that he wanted to be a stripper someday. Every time a story is reported it gets transformed. News reports are no different from the game "telephone" that you used to play when you were a kid.
I discussed this topic with a friend of mine who said, "I don't believe news stories immediately when I hear them, but, I tend to believe it after hearing the same story from multiple sources." My friend has the wrong attitude. How many times in 1995 did you hear that the Republicans are cutting Medicare? At least 1000. But the GOP proposed to increase Medicare - they just want a smaller increase than the Democrats. Government officials, sports figures, and businesspeople should always be innocent until proven guilty. Remember, Sally's rumor probably got around her high school too.
Politicians, of course, distort the truth. Republicans, Democrats, Reformers, Libertarians, Greens, Independents, Communists, Facists and others angle what they say. But politicians are not at fault for a gullible society. We must understand that when an official says something, even a "non-partisan" official, he or she is usually trying to achieve an end goal with the statement. Thus, people have an agenda. That should not be shocking, it should be comforting. People should work to achieve an end goal. The media, however, should not portray these opinions by others as truth.
All said, however, you have to believe in something -- though you can't take a report only at face value. I never believe "facts" until I complete the proper research and take some time to determine my opinion. For instance, I believe the world is round and have not joined the "Flat Earth Society." I don't have any real proof of the world's shape and I never tried to sail around the world, but a preponderance of the evidence suggests that the world is indeed round.
With information overload coming at our population, many of us choose a medium to filter the information for us. This is very dangerous. We should take advantage of the availability of news from different sources and determine our opinions after thought and rational decision making.
An editor of mine asked : "Beyond simply checking facts for yourselves, what can be done to insure that the American public is made aware of election-time truth?" The best way to insure you make an informed choice is to absorb as much information as possible from as many sources as possible. After making decisions based on all the information for some time, you may find others you tend to agree with you. Because you might not always have time to read everything available, it is certainly OK to rely on people with similar views to help you make decisions (like a Senator's staff). However, the above question asks how you can be aware of the "truth." Unfortunately, there is usually more than one truth or, more commonly, no truth. I suggest you use your best judgment and resist information from being spoon fed to you.

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