Prior to retirement, I ran a business, and before that I was involved in politics, and sports. Therefore, I have been in the news all my life and I find it quite interesting that almost every single time I've ever been in the newspaper, on TV, or even on the radio that my words, or my quotes in an interview were taken out of context, or the story was shaped by the actual reporter themselves who wished to say something, or had some ulterior motive. Okay so, let's talk about this for second shall we?
It is amazing how many people believe what they see on TV or read in the newspaper. However, I am quite skeptical these days due to the reality that every news event I've ever been involved in, or participated in had always been taken out of context. If I can't trust the stories that I was intimately involved with how on earth could I trust the story that I know nothing about, but only heard of in the news? The reality is I can't, and I know that. However, other people don't, they believe all of that nonsense hook, line, and sinker, and I would submit to you that it is a huge problem in our society and civilization.
Another thing that I've noticed in this day and age of social media is that more and more people are speaking up when the newspaper gets it wrong, and the corrections columns in the various newspapers are getting larger and larger. Some might say this is because the quality reporting has gone down, or that the major newspapers can no longer afford the proper staff to do the fact checking. Yes, those are also problems.
The Wall Street Journal now has a "Correction and Amplifications" column which is on page 2 in the lower right hand side near advertisements in their format. This new column is quite large these days, and takes up quite a bit of space each and every single day. It's the same thing for the Washington Post, LA times, Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, and Miami Herald. In fact, I would submit to you that it is happening in all newspapers and it hardly matters if it is the Chicago Tribune or the San Francisco Chronicle.
If the newspapers can't get it right, and a large part of what they print is found to contain mistakes and be riddled with errors, then why would anyone pay to those newspapers, believe what is written, or subscribe online to these digital publication versions? This is not to say that the digital media is any better, in fact, it's probably worse. The reality is you can't believe anything anymore, and I would submit to you that you never could anyway. Now it's just more obvious. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
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