Here is the News

How much can we believe? How much that is written in the newspapers and said on the radio and televisual media is fact?

The knee-jerk reaction from most of us, I strongly suspect, is that there is very little.

When we scour the National, or local, newspapers, how often do we give a wry smile and shake our heads? When we listen to what is purported to be “International News” on the television or radio, how much do we take in and accept as being ‘The Truth’?

Perhaps not much.

Newspapers and the news on broadcast media are supposed to be just that—news. This means presenting a factual account that has been researched and proven to be correct before gong to the microphones and telling the World.

It often is, blatantly, not.

Too often the news comes to us from politicians via the journalists. They hand out ‘fact’ sheets to the press telling those journalists what it is that they want the ‘common herd’ to know.

These are not the facts.

Politicians, like us, like every person on the planet, do not want to look bad in front of other people. Other people means, particularly, their bosses, friends, family usually in that order.

They will frame their facts to reflect their wants, needs and aspirations. We, the voters, are not consulted and neither, for the large part, are we cared for, respected or listened to.

Certainly there are some aspects of the news that are honest and factual as in the case of a baby being killed or a car crash on the highway; we will see an accurate version of the game played on Saturday afternoon in the newspaper or on TV because we all have the opportunity to see the game, if it is a big one, for ourselves on the Sports Channels.

These are things they cannot make up. These are inflexible and inviolate facts that are reported, for the most part, accurately.

“For the most part”? Well, yes. In some instances the police and fire departments do not wish to be held up in a bad light and so the ‘facts’ may be smoothed and adjusted to suit.

These are small matters to the general public although they are hugely important to the individuals close to ‘The Facts’.

It is when the crises become International that the facts become distorted by politicians and those with vested interests in the outcomes of any particular disturbance in the peace of the World.

We can think now of more than just politicians. We can consider the people who manufacture weapons and articles of war. We can think of chemical manufacturers who may wish to promote their products to the agricultural world that has no come under the domain of the victor/aggressor. We can think of developers, architects, builders who my gain lucrative contracts to step in for the rebuilding process.

Then there are purveyors of clean water systems, food suppliers, medical teams and makers of medicines.

There are a plethora of people out there who make lots of money out of the pain and mutilation of the ‘Common Herd’. People who are nothing; people who are ‘collateral damage’ because their existence is meaningless, worthless beyond the aspirations of the corporate greed and politicians self-glorification.

Peasants are swept aside as has been the custom and tradition over centuries because such people are accustomed to dying; for them, life is not just cheap but has no value.

Especially to those seeking business oportunities.

Those seeking business opportunities need an excuse; they need ratification of their position. They need, if necessary, scapegoats.

Scapegoats are politicians. Politicians need money to fund campaigns for re-election. They are bought by the manufacturers and businesses that can pay for them.

Politicians need an exit plan. They need someone to do their dirty work for them.

Enter the journalist.

Don’t let facts stand in the way of a good story. Or, at least, the story they are told to tell.