The Truth Is Out There

(somewhere..covered up by errors and mistakes)

The New York Times Sunday took a full page ad containing just 7 words:

“Truth. It’s more important now than ever.”

I agree...and to try to help area citizens understand better, our local SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists) chapter held a public meeting last week to point out differences between fake news and the real thing. The H-L did an advance story, but I saw none of the actual meeting, and only  1 tv station covered it so far as I know.

We in the media are often our own worse enemy..and that’s especially true when we report stories full of grammatical errors and, worse, factual errors. Neither helps our mission to seek the truth and present it to readers, viewers, and listeners.

For example, one day last week, between the hours of 5:30 and 7pm I caught the following:

Lexington tv station---a good report on a Special Olympian about to go “halfway around the world” to compete—in Austria. Austria is about 6 thousand miles from Kentucky; halfway around the world is over 12 thousand miles.

The NBC Nightly News, reporting on tax reform plans spelled it “Refeorm.”

CBS in a report on Trump’s approval rating used a poll with a FIVE percentage point margin of error. That means a possible ten percentage point swing, large enough to invalidate the findings.

ABC’s evening news promoted 3 upcoming stories, ALL listed as “next.”  Only one story can be “next.”

The PBS NewsHour had a sponsor telling us “it’s 2016!”

Earlier one of our local stations presented two field reporters who told us “ I seen...”

And on an ESPN halftime report, one of its commentators reported (Joe) “run the court” well.

You may think some of these errors are minor; I don’t. If reporters don’t have much concern to use correct English, why should we think they have any concern for correct facts????

Without correct facts, there is no Truth.

And Truth, as I hope we all agree "is more important now than ever.”

I'm just sayin'...