Today’s Scripture
Reading (November 10, 2017): Matthew 23
CNN, after weeks of being referred to by
Donald Trump’s as fake news, is fighting back. Added to their tagline “The
Most Trusted Name in News,” we now have the “This is an Apple” campaign. The
idea is simple. They show a beautiful red apple on the screen and tell us that “This
is an apple. Some people may try to tell you that this is a banana. They might
scream banana, banana, banana, over and over and over again. They might put banana in all caps. You might even start to believe
that this is a banana, but it’s not. This
is an apple.” And then the apple is replaced by the words “Facts First” on
screen and finally the CNN logo. Some have charged that the advertisement plays
mind games with the viewer, and that might be true, but no more so, and
probably less, than most of the other advertisements you will view today. The
truth that we know is that the piece of fruit that we watched on screen for the
last 25 seconds was indeed an apple. There is a counter-campaign
available for view on YouTube that contains the same dialogue but replaces the red apple with a yellow banana, and of course, ends with the obligatory CNN logo with
the words “Fake News” attached.
To be honest, the fake news discussion frustrates me. Fake News is
someone typing out a news story on their kitchen table without any facts so
that it can be posted, maybe on your Facebook
page, and they can reap money from advertising or influence your decisions with
their words. Fake News is a lie dressed up as truth. CNN is not fake news. It
is biased news. Right now, there is absolutely
no doubt that CNN takes issue with anything that is based on Donald Trump. Every story they tell is true, at least according to their research, but
the story spun in such a way that opposes the agenda of the President of the United
States. They do have a spattering of experts who want to tell the Trump story
and spin the very real news in the
opposite direction, benefitting Mr. Trump.
At times, both frustrate me, because the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Donald Trump’s mistake was aiming the fake news comment at them and other
news agencies in the first place. The first rule in Public Relations is that if
you want balanced reporting, do not make the reporters your enemy. The Trump
White House continues to thumb their nose at any such advice. Make the press
your friends, be open and accountable to them, and you might be amazed at where
such effort will take you.
Oh, and by the way, CNN is definitely
biased reporting, but the existence of unbiased reporting is an urban myth. We
are all influenced by our biases. Left, right, straight down the center. And
the only way that we can try to escape our biases
is to acknowledge them. Here are the biases
that I recognize about myself. I am a
conservative Christian. I am not one that tends to accept the arguments from
either political or religious extremes,
left or right. I am a fiscal conservative who likes the idea of small
government and balanced budgets. I believe that our economic base needs to be
spread out over many industries. These are some of my biases that I battle as I
sit in my office and write.
Jesus says that the Pharisees sit in the seat of Moses. He does not mean
that they do this physically. He is not
speaking of the seats of leadership in
the Sanhedrin. He is talking specifically about
their responsibility to teach the Law of Moses. And according to Jesus, because
they teach the Mosaic Law, the people
should listen. Sometimes when I hear the way that the Christian Church talks
about the Pharisees, it reminds me of the Fake News debate. Jesus is not saying
that the Pharisees are Fake News, but rather that they are biased teachers just
like the rest of us.
The reality is that, as we grow older, we should be able
to begin to recognize bias, in the news we watch, in our friends and even in
ourselves. I watch CNN. I do not believe everything that they
are telling me. I recognize their bias. Because the Pharisees teach the Law of
Moses, the people needed to listen to them and follow their instructions, all
the while acknowledging their bias. If
there was a problem with the Pharisees, it was not that they were teaching lies
or that they were Fake News, it was that they were living lies that did not
measure up to the lessons that they taught.
And whenever our life does not measure up to the teaching that comes out of our
mouths, we have a problem.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Matthew 24
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