BERNIE SANDERS, who by his own admission is a Democrat Socialist — more leftist Democrat or Socialist? — is being taken to task by Republicans for stating a fact: Fidel Castro made education a focal point of his regime.
Although I am not a fan of Sen. Sanders, what he said about Castro is true.
Sen. Sanders, to the best of my knowledge, never said Castro was a nice guy or that his government was good to, or for, the Cuban people.
IT IS POSSIBLE TO FIND SOMETHING positive to say about almost anyone. Tomás de Torquemada, Hitler, and Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer are notable exceptions to that generality.
It may not be popular among Democrats, but President Trump HAS improved the economy and HAS reduced unemployment and HAS brought back jobs to the U.S.
It may not be popular among Republicans, but ex-president Obama DID push through a health plan and DID bring about the destabilizing Arab Spring that toppled governments throughout the Middle East.
Gray (grey) areas
Rarely is anyone 100 percent this or 100% that.
There always are “exceptions to the rule” that muddy our perceptions.
Given the reality of this, why are we so quick to condemn someone who even suggests that someone might have a redeeming feature?
In Israel, there are many who claim that all “Palestinians” just want to murder Israelis. Yet, during forest fire season, “Palestinians” help Israelis put out fires. It doesn’t make the headlines, but it happens. On the other side of the coin, there are “Palestinians” who are taught all Israelis are monsters, when in reality many “Palestinian” lives are saved in Israeli hospitals.
- Since, unlike the “Palestinians,” Israelis include Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others, equating “Israelis” only with “Jews” is not accurate.
Sensationalizing the norm
The media, left, right, and in between, seems to have slipped from reporting the facts sans emotion to sensationalizing almost everything.
It IS what is said — written — and HOW it is written that determines how a reasonable reader responds.
I doubt any internet gazetteer can write a “straight” news story sans hyperbole. The “right” is no better or worse than the “left.” There seems to be no “middle” when it comes to politics. Even this blog if given a close read will show a slight bias.
Perhaps we have become accustomed to what used to be called “tabloid headlines.” Not necessary accurate, but bound to get the potential reader’s attention. Most of us get our “news” from tv that mimics the tabloids.
Half truths
Worse, by far, than tabloid headlines are one-sided reports. Half truths are no better than full lies.
Police shoot man in front of his house
The headline may be 100 percent accurate, but what is missing is WHY the cops fired their guns.
Even in the “old days” of real newspapers where headline writers were limited by available space, good editors demanded honest headlines.
- As a newspaper man I used to break my head getting headlines to fit AND be complete. I loved the challenge.
We are cursed with poorly written biased headlines and poorly written biased “news” copy.
Fidel Castro WAS a dictator who owed the U.S. for its help over-throwing the Batista regime. (So much for “influencing elections.”)
John Kennedy put an embargo in place to prevent importation of Cuban products … AFTER he laid in a large supply of his favorite Cuban cigars.
There used to be a radio program featuring Paul Harvey (right). Mr. Harvey always ended the program with the comment “Now you know (pause) the rest of the story.
Sen., Sanders was correct in his statement about Castro. A good reporter should have dug a little bit to find out what else the senator said about the despot. That would have provided a complete story to make Paul Harvey proud.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.
No comments:
Post a Comment