[Dean's World] Dave Price: Truth And Consequences

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Truth And Consequences
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1185126268.shtml


   Via [1]Glenn, a [2]self-serving bit of tripe over at HuffPo that goes
   a long way toward explaining why the media is one of the least-trusted
   institutions in America today:

     Journalists who think they are telling "the truth" don't understand
     the truth. We each have our own truth.

   Tell that to Scooter Libby. He was sentenced to prison for remembering
   "the truth" differently than journalists.
   In a larger sense, this trope (which has become distressingly common)
   tends to differentiate those who work in technical and nontechnical
   fields. When you work in programming or engineering, any logical or
   mathematical untruths you commit are simply intolerable and must be
   rooted out, exposed, and corrected. Comforting notions that your
   flawed work (and no one gets it right the first time; technical work
   always involves a lot of painstaking, humbling effort in finding, and
   admitting, your own mistakes) somehow embodies "your truth" will lead
   to a very unproductive career.
   Sadly, such notions of rigorous intellectual honesty and absolute
   truth don't even rate lip service from our media, thanks to attitudes
   like this. Instead of being a reliable source of objective, factual
   news, the media forces anyone seeking truth to de-filter the
   narrator's bias from every "story" -- often with [3]extremely
   troubling consequences.

References

   1. http://instapundit.com/archives2/007403.php
   2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penelope-trunk/it-doesnt-matter-that-jo_b_56985.html
   3. http://mediamythbusters.com/index.php?title=Main_Page