(From the Janesville Messenger, 6-21-09)
On the editorial page of this newspaper last week, the Messenger gave its assessment of Keith Olbermann, ESPN SportsCenter anchor turned MSNBC political commentator. The editorial branded Olbermann as a “hate-monger” and called him “an affront to good journalism.”
I had two problems with the editorial. First of all, you could take every charge thrown at Olbermann and MSNBC and easily level them at someone like Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. In fact, if you changed the words “Olbermann,” “MSNBC” and “liberal” to “O’Reilly,” “Fox” and “conservative,” the editorial would have been just as valid.
But that’s totally subjective, depending on whose political viewpoints you prefer.
My bigger issue is in labeling Olbermann as a journalist. He, O’Reilly, and many of the other talking heads we see on television these days, are anything but.
If you look up “journalism” in the American Heritage Dictionary, you will find this definition: “The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of the direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.”
Straight news reporting - the presentation of facts - isn’t dead but it certainly smells funny. I would like to think that the big three TV networks continue in that tradition but it’s been so long since I’ve watched a network newscast that I couldn’t tell you. Besides the articles by the still-respected Associated Press that run in The Janesville Gazette, I get most of my national and international news from CNN. Since both sides of the political aisle criticize CNN, they must be doing something right. However, I’m a little dismayed by the increasing amount of crud they program, like Nancy Grace’s show.
But the fact is that many Americans, and maybe even a majority of them, primarily receive their news in a form that is spun to a certain political viewpoint. It’s not just TV networks like Fox News and MSNBC, but websites, magazines, or the opinionated microphones of people like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham or Al Franken. Fox may try to label themselves as “Fair and Balanced” and O’Reilly’s show as a “No-Spin Zone,” but frankly, that’s as truthful as putting a “T-Bone Steak” label on a can of dog food.
I guess that’s the beauty of a free country. We now have the freedom to choose how we want our news presented to us. Whatever your political persuasion, you can find a “news” source that appeals to you. The problem is, when your primary source of national and world events is biased, you tend to automatically discount any other presentation of the facts. You are not receiving news from news people; these folks are not journalists. They are commentators. There is a distinct difference.
For example, Helen Thomas, the veteran White House reporter for United Press International who traditionally had a major role in presidential press conferences, left that wire service in 2000 and became a syndicated columnist and author. As a UPI reporter, she was loved and feared by every president from Kennedy to Clinton, who knew she was not afraid to ask the tough questions. Once free of her role as a news reporter, however, she let her opinions fly, most notably revealing her total disdain for President George W. Bush. Whatever you think about her, you have to admit that Helen had old-school journalistic integrity. She waited until she had her own forum – when she had made the transition from reporter to commentator - to make those opinions known in print.
But the line that separates journalist and commentator gets blurrier each day. Even my local weekly paper, The Milton Courier, sometimes colors straight news stories like City Council meetings with the reporter’s own viewpoints.
Perhaps the most frightening development, however, is the number of e-mails that I receive that contain some sort of shocking news that turns out to be complete fabrication. Apparently, besides being a nation that accepts as face value everything we see on television, we are now a nation that believes everything that it reads in the form of an e-mail. I am amazed at the intelligent people I know that pass these e-mails along without checking their validity.
I wish I had a better solution than the way I have learned to deal with things – which is by being cynical about nearly everything I’m presented with. I take it all with a grain of salt.
But please keep in mind – I am a commentator and these are strictly my opinions.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Holy Rollers With Guts
(From the Janesville Messenger, 6-7-09)
When I worked in downtown Janesville, I could almost set my watch by it.
Sitting in my second floor office in the late afternoon, I would suddenly hear the wheels rolling on the blacktop. I would look out the window and see the skateboarders build up speed through our parking lot and launch themselves into the parking lot next door, which sat a few feet lower than ours.
The constant whirring of their wheels was annoyingly noisy, a great deal louder than you would expect. Between the sound, the expectation of damage to our vehicles, and the potential for lawsuits if one of them got hurt, I generally went out to shoo them away or threaten to call the police. It was the first time in my life that I looked in the mirror and saw the cranky old neighbor who always yells at the kids to stay off his lawn.
So needless to say, I had a pretty negative opinion of skateboarders. But my “book-by-its-cover” thinking was rocked recently when I saw a presentation by a group of young men calling themselves “Skaters Of Christ.”
These five youths, ranging in age from 12 to 16, can do some pretty impressive skateboarding tricks. But they see their skateboarding as a vehicle for something much more important – bringing fellow skaters to Christianity.
15-year-old Nathaniel Muench says the group was inspired to “do something bigger and better for [God’s] glory. So we chose a skateboard ministry since it’s our talent from God.”
Nathaniel and the others – 13-year-olds Zachary Muench and Brandon Stewart, 16-year-old Daniel Belleau and 12-year-old David – go to skate parks in Whitewater, Jefferson, Delafield or “wherever God calls us to go.”
They strike up conversations with other skaters by asking if they know where they are going to go when they die, or by the more direct “Do you know Jesus Christ?”
As you can imagine, these inquiries are not always well received. On one particularly bad day in Whitewater, the group was cursed and threatened. “Even worse, they cursed at God,” said Brandon. “But we stayed strong and close to God.”
The Skaters of Christ are getting results. They are very proud that at a recent outing in Jefferson, some of the people to whom they preached accepted Jesus as their savior.
Word of their ministry is spreading. When the group went to Delafield for the first time, they were surprised to find that people there had already heard of them.
What is most impressive to me about these young men is that they willfully venture where many seasoned adults wouldn’t dare – straight into a lion’s den, knowing that they invite scorn and ridicule. The strength of their convictions – and the courage they display - is an amazing thing to behold. How many of us believe so strongly in something, that we would put ourselves in situations that could result in verbal or possibly, physical abuse, in hopes of making a difference? By comparison, when I was their age, the only thing I believed strongly was that CB radio was cool, and I was way too shy to even ask a girl to a movie.
The Skaters Of Christ have only been preaching for about a year, but they have big plans. They believe that God’s will for the short term is to share the Gospel while touring the United States and other countries, doing demonstrations and skating with people at parks. Their long-term goal: to become pastors.
If you want to find out more about this group, they have started a web site at www.SkatersofChrist.webs.com or they can be emailed at skatersofchrist@gmail.com.
Shakespeare wrote, “Screw your courage to a sticking place, and we’ll not fail.” These young men do it every day, and they are succeeding.
When I worked in downtown Janesville, I could almost set my watch by it.
Sitting in my second floor office in the late afternoon, I would suddenly hear the wheels rolling on the blacktop. I would look out the window and see the skateboarders build up speed through our parking lot and launch themselves into the parking lot next door, which sat a few feet lower than ours.
The constant whirring of their wheels was annoyingly noisy, a great deal louder than you would expect. Between the sound, the expectation of damage to our vehicles, and the potential for lawsuits if one of them got hurt, I generally went out to shoo them away or threaten to call the police. It was the first time in my life that I looked in the mirror and saw the cranky old neighbor who always yells at the kids to stay off his lawn.
So needless to say, I had a pretty negative opinion of skateboarders. But my “book-by-its-cover” thinking was rocked recently when I saw a presentation by a group of young men calling themselves “Skaters Of Christ.”
These five youths, ranging in age from 12 to 16, can do some pretty impressive skateboarding tricks. But they see their skateboarding as a vehicle for something much more important – bringing fellow skaters to Christianity.
15-year-old Nathaniel Muench says the group was inspired to “do something bigger and better for [God’s] glory. So we chose a skateboard ministry since it’s our talent from God.”
Nathaniel and the others – 13-year-olds Zachary Muench and Brandon Stewart, 16-year-old Daniel Belleau and 12-year-old David – go to skate parks in Whitewater, Jefferson, Delafield or “wherever God calls us to go.”
They strike up conversations with other skaters by asking if they know where they are going to go when they die, or by the more direct “Do you know Jesus Christ?”
As you can imagine, these inquiries are not always well received. On one particularly bad day in Whitewater, the group was cursed and threatened. “Even worse, they cursed at God,” said Brandon. “But we stayed strong and close to God.”
The Skaters of Christ are getting results. They are very proud that at a recent outing in Jefferson, some of the people to whom they preached accepted Jesus as their savior.
Word of their ministry is spreading. When the group went to Delafield for the first time, they were surprised to find that people there had already heard of them.
What is most impressive to me about these young men is that they willfully venture where many seasoned adults wouldn’t dare – straight into a lion’s den, knowing that they invite scorn and ridicule. The strength of their convictions – and the courage they display - is an amazing thing to behold. How many of us believe so strongly in something, that we would put ourselves in situations that could result in verbal or possibly, physical abuse, in hopes of making a difference? By comparison, when I was their age, the only thing I believed strongly was that CB radio was cool, and I was way too shy to even ask a girl to a movie.
The Skaters Of Christ have only been preaching for about a year, but they have big plans. They believe that God’s will for the short term is to share the Gospel while touring the United States and other countries, doing demonstrations and skating with people at parks. Their long-term goal: to become pastors.
If you want to find out more about this group, they have started a web site at www.SkatersofChrist.webs.com or they can be emailed at skatersofchrist@gmail.com.
Shakespeare wrote, “Screw your courage to a sticking place, and we’ll not fail.” These young men do it every day, and they are succeeding.
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