Breaking the News

   "The U.S. Constitution guarantees a free press. It does not guarantee a fair press." -- Edwin Newman.

   "There is also no guarantee of a competent  press." -- Pug Mahoney

   "A lie can run around the world before truth can get its shoes on." -- Mark Twain.

   Government troops in Nigeria this week reportedly confiscated and destroyed copies of a newspaper in the name of searching for "security risk material." It seems that a few days before, the newspaper Weekly Trust published an article accusing generals of using an army barracks for personal use. (Agence France Presse, via the New York Times.)
   There are many examples of incompetent reporters, especially at smaller publications that hire newbies at low wages. It's also true that many publications broadcast outlets have agendas. (Read: Propaganda.) This is often true at government-run news operations.
   Most major independent news organizations, unaffiliated with government agencies or political parties, do their best to publish truth and to avoid falling victim to government and political lies. It's up to readers, therefore, to scan everything they seen in print and on television with a jaundiced eye, knowing there are several sides to every story and sometimes it takes a while for all the facts to become known. Moreover, some news organizations are more blatant in their coverage viewpoints than others. In the main, however, major mainstream news media are neutral.
  This is not to say, however, that they are always competent and are never misled. It is, after all, the task of the spinmeisters to get coverage as favorable to their clients as they can. That said, many public relations practitioners are forthright in their dealings with reporters. Each has a job to do. On the other hand, there are those in the PR field who are not forthright and truthful with reporters and the general public. They are called flacks.
   
   Given all that preliminary comment, here's the status of a couple of news stories taking up time and space in the media today. In brief, we don't yet know all the circumstances surrounding the actions of Bowe Bergdahl and Edward Snowden, and it may take many more weeks before we do.
   When Sgt. Bergdahl was first released after five years as a captive in Afghanistan, politicians jumped on the PR bandwagon to declare him a hero. Later, when reports came that he may have walked away from his post, these same pols reversed their positions and chanted a different song.
   Likewise, Snowden was initially accused of being a traitor for divulging the secret and possible illegal and unconstitutional activities of the U.S. government. Will that label still hold as the government activities are proven to be illegal and unconstitutional?
   But politicians and government agents have an agenda, and are not always forthcoming, much less truthful, about what they do in the name of their vaguely defined "interests of national security."
   Is it really "national security" or a CYA tactic to protect their jobs, their strategies and their own political ambitions?
   Meanwhile, journalists are move likely to dig for information in the public interest than are politicians with an agenda.
   To quote Thomas Jefferson, "Given the choice of government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I would take the latter."
   This, of course, was said when he was out of office. As President, he signed and enforced the Sedition Act, which made it a federal crime to criticize the government.
   In some countries today, criticizing the government is still a crime. Fortunately, it's not true in America.
   Yet.