Trust But Verify

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that there are far fewer reporters than there are editors.  The Columbia School of Journalism cranks out scores of qualified journalists every year, yet most of them seem to be trying to change the world rather than simply reporting the news.

I readily admit that I write an opinionated column, not news.  I could provide statistics all day and discuss them with you, but I don’t.  I give you a fan’s opinion here, nothing more, nothing less.  It’s my site, so I can do what I want, within reason.  This is a site that your kids can read if they want to.  No bad language is tolerated here, mostly because I consider NASCAR to be a family sport.

There are plenty of places that you, the NASCAR fan can find stats and whatever you want.  I don’t do that here.  I won’t apologize for it, because this is just what I do.  www.jayski.com can tell you pretty much all you want to know about anything regarding NASCAR.  Jay does it better than I ever could, so all you get here is my opinion.

That being said, I have noticed that there are quite a few ‘journalists’ out there who apparently consider themselves editors with editorial license.  That’s a shame, because I would rather hear the raw news, not some reporter’s spin on things.

This obviously happens not only in the NASCAR world, but also in the political world as well.  It’s a shame that people will behave as sheep and believe everything that some airhead on TV tells them.  All I can say is that I believe that if you want to be well informed, you should read widely, think about what you read, and never, ever believe the first thing you hear on TV.  It’s just not healthy, folks.

Try to understand that most reporters are not very objective, and that they will try to spin news to reflect kindly on their personally favorite subjects.  Reporters will also put a little negative spin on stories that deal with people they don’t like, or have been taught not to like.  Way to go, Columbia U.!

In other words, you get lied to every time you watch TV.  I’m sorry, but it’s a fact, but any so called facts you hear on the news, especially in late breaking stories should be taken with a grain of salt.  It’s easy to do when your purpose in life is to change the world, not simply report the news.  This can also be said of most of the newspapers in the country.

Your local TV newscaster or newspaper columnist might be trustworthy to you, and if you trust them, you’re lucky, especially if they really tell you the truth.  Around the area that I live in, I can’t trust anyone who calls themselves a journalist.  Even the weatherman lies to me.  Just joking.

There is an old saying:  “Trust, but verify.”  In other words, do your own research.  Find the facts for yourself.  Don’t trust anything a talking head or so called reporter tells you unless it’s a fire or a traffic accident.  Even then, don’t trust them.

Trust, but verify.