BLOG – The Truth – You can’t handle the truth!

25 Jun 2016

Opinion – Ray Gibson

ray_gibson_50x50.jpgI have to confess to being a news tragic. For as long as I can remember, I have fed my unfortunate news addiction with a daily fix of radio and TV bulletins, supplemented with print and online news.

My problem is that in today’s world, genuine news reports are almost impossible to find, and even more so during a prolonged election campaign.

To my mind, news should be about the objective presentation of the facts in as much detail as necessary to allow the reader, listener or viewer to draw their own conclusions and make their own valid judgements. Silly me! Everyone knows that objective truth in the mainstream media, along with journalistic integrity, were the first casualties of the political correctness pandemic that has engulfed our society.

Self-serving political elites and supercilious media midgets masquerading as real journalists couldn’t possibly risk the masses thinking for themselves and perhaps forming a view of the world that differs from their myopic ideology. We can’t handle the truth, so we are force-fed radio and TV reports and printed articles with a filtered view of the objective truth. And that is what passes for news today.

Every journalistic trick is employed: selective use of facts; opinions poorly disguised as facts; one-sided interviews; denial of media time and space for other legitimate views; and the cheapest shot of all, resorting to personal attacks on individuals or organizations rather than mounting persuasive arguments against a view that differs from the politically correct agenda of the political and media elites.

This helps to explain the almost total disregard of veteran issues in the election campaign by the mainstream media and the major parties. The ‘policy free zone’ as ADSO calls it, exists because it doesn’t suit the political agenda of Government or Opposition to admit their failures in veteran policy over many years; and with few exceptions, it doesn’t suit the agenda of the morally bereft media class who see nothing in the story worthy of their time.

Election of our Parliamentary representatives is an incredibly important democratic function of the people. Access to the objective truth is equally important for people to make an informed decision about our Nation’s future. But don’t expect to find that truth coming from the spin machine of any major political party or the media class who think they know better.

Through necessity, I now accept nothing at face value that I see, hear or read. I look for the truth in places the mainstream media and the major parties would prefer I didn’t look. Some of the smaller political parties that aren’t beholden to major interest groups and the few genuinely independent journalists are a good starting point.

I can handle the truth. I’m sure you can too.