Starring: my thoughts

Geez, it's been a while--welcome back, eh?
...

Russell Peters does a little bit in his new routine, Red, White, and Brown, about how the media tell you what to think. There isn't a clip or transcript online just yet, but the gist of it goes that the news will report a robbery and then describe the alleged suspect and then allow you to draw your own conclusion about anyone who might look like the alleged suspect. "Bad thing happened, dark-skinned character lurking about...I don't know...what do you think now about dark-skinned characters?"

(that was a horrible recount of the sketch...sorry)

Anyway, while it was a funny conclusion to draw on stage, it was an interesting point of reference to compare to when I had my own run in with the media this weekend. Now, without saying too much, long story short is that the one and only paper I ever even glance at ran an article (front page, no less) about a story I happened to be privy to the factual details of.

The whole three pages were nothing short of slanderous of the main character of interest, and perhaps deservingly so. But it was the light cast on the other parties that were drawn into this character's tangled web of personal and business associations that didn't seem fair to me. Again, saving the details, names were wrong (even though upon the second mentions of them later in the article they got them right), details were incorrect, and actual face-saving facts were left out.

Being an slackingly aspiring writer myself, I know that when I have my own agenda to put into words, not much will be able to change my tone of voice or the selection of details that I will choose to share. But then, when I write, it's mostly for my own interest and sanity, not to impose an omnipotent opinion on my (few) readers. When the newspaper publishes something, it IS to impose an opinion and (now, as I see it) biased view on its readers.

I don't know...what do you think?

And no one will ever know about the details the author got wrong. Few will notice the misspelling of the name in the article. For sure none will even guess at the redeeming factors left in the wings. And, chances are that if the main character of interest from the article gets cleared of all of the allegations made against him in the story, the author won't be back to write an apology article.

Such was my lesson in life from this weekend.

I spent the first part of my morning re-reading the article online and following the links the author had gathered to "corroborate" his story. I also took a chunk of time reading the comments that other readers had to share about the article. It was really interesting to see how many were for and against the writer's point. It was also kind of refreshing to note I wasn't the only one who raised an eyebrow.