Mark Twain once said “Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, unless you can’t think of anything better.”
Never has that been more relevant than in today’s society. There are so many examples of this, that it is hard to pick one.
On Sunday’s Golden Globe broadcast, Meryl Streep decided to use her platform to advocate for an independent media.
She referenced an example of Donald Trump making fun of a disabled reporter at a rally.
Trump jumped on Twitter the next morning to deny the allegation and claim media and Hollywood bias against him.
Did he forget that the whole sequence was televised?
Guess what, it doesn’t matter because people that believe the media is biased aren’t particularly interested in the facts.
If they believe something to be true, they refuse to change their opinion even when presented with clear evidence to the contrary.
The job of an independent media is to report the news.
Report the facts.
Hold those in power accountable and also set the record straight when ‘mis-truths’ are present.
Makes sense doesn’t it? Seems like the right thing to do.
It used to be, but it can’t be the only line of defence against this disease.
We can no longer just depend on the media to clear the air.
We must be our own critical thinkers.
We must question everything.
The problem is we have lost the ability to think for ourselves.
When we hear something, we repeat it before fact checking it for ourselves.
If someone has the temerity to bring proper information into the discussion, we dismiss them as being biased or duped.
If the facts contradict the narrative, we assume that the game is rigged.
Conspiracy theories are nothing new.
Galileo was called a heretic for discovering that the earth and planets revolve around the sun.
There are still people that think the earth is flat.
I’ve read letters from people that believe jet contrails contain chemicals that are meant to control our minds.
They call them chem-trails.
You could present factual evidence to the contrary but you won’t change their opinion.
My personal favourite is the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was staged by the government. That one gets me every time.
We have been receiving many letters regarding the Banks Crescent development.
Some of them are based on some fact but others contain speculation.
I would encourage all of you reading this to go to the public information sessions and dig out the facts for yourselves.
That is what these sessions are for.
No one will trick you into agreeing with them. No one will dupe you.
Ask questions and ask follow up questions. When presented with facts that go against your own opinion, check them out for yourself.
If they square up, trust them to be true.
As for Galileo, he was overrated anyway.
Rob Murphy is the sales manager at the Summerland Review.
