“Truth is truth.”
What an excellent and striking yet very confusing and vague sentence for our world to comprehend. You can accept the three words, hear them in one ear and easily let them go right out the other. Or, if you stop and think, the wheels in your brain will turn and create a question:
What is the actual definition of truth?
“The quality or state of being true,” said Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. Well, that doesn’t help much, does it? Unless you follow the trail and then define “true” to be something “in accordance with fact or reality.”
In our world, though, people debate facts — especially if they don’t like where the facts come from. Take the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. When it first hit in March 2020, almost everyone trusted the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to provide statistics, facts, and other information regarding the number and scope of COVID-19 cases. However, the media has taken this information, mixed it with opinion, and constructed various opinions that bear only a faint resemblance to truth.
For example, Oklahoma TV station KFOR reported recently that hospitals throughout the state were overrun by patients overdosing on ivermectin. Rolling Stone and other media outlets picked up the story and ran with it. Problem is it wasn’t true. Based on one physician’s testimony, the story would have been easy enough to verify by simply checking with the hospitals.
Why did this happen? How does something, clearly untrue, pass for truth?
Truth cannot change. No matter how you feel, whether we agree or disagree, the truth is there, or it isn’t. This is not to say that opinions and feelings don’t matter. But reporting the news is ultimately a search for the truth if that truth is based on what the founder of Grassroots Media Inc., Dan Gillmor calls the four pillars of journalism:
Thoroughness – Do not be afraid to ask questions. Gather information from all sides, not just the ones that support your beliefs. Take prejudice, bias, and feelings out of it. Double-check everything.
Accuracy – Gillmor said, “Say what you don’t know, not just what you do.” As humans, it is a proven fact that we do not know everything, and our native culture sometimes limits us from seeing what we need to see.
“We swim in culture the way fish swim in water,” author and minister Don Richter said. “It surrounds us so closely that we barely notice it affecting the ways we move through the world.”
Do not be a fish in water. Take notice of your surroundings, principally when you stand in new territory. Get your facts straight.
In Jan. 2019, the stories surrounding former Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann did not contain all the facts. The media slammed Sandmann after videos of a confrontation between him, classmates, and Native American activist Nathan Phillips spread like wildfire. In reality, the Covington students (Sandmann at the forefront) were the ones harassed. By the time news outlets gathered the correct information, the damage to Sandmann’s reputation had been done.
Fairness – Listen to people. Allow room for them to respond. “Stories should be balanced and add context,” said The Ethical Journalism Network.
In Sandmann’s story, the media reported quickly and did not wait to finalize contextual details. Sandmann sued CNN, the Washington Post and other outlets for libel.
Transparency – Link sources as much as possible to the data you’re presenting. It shows where the information comes from and builds trust, communication and credibility — the foundations of good friendships and relationships. Transparency shows respect.
Without these pillars, the line between facts and opinion blurs. The natural suspicion of humanity rises, creating more division in an already divided culture.
Pursuing truth, whether you are a journalist or not, counteracts such suspicion. It acts as a conversation, building bridges between communities. Truth implements trust and remains unchanged, provided we believe truth is truth.
