Tell It Like It Is

You ever referee a ballgame? Doesn't matter what kind - baseball, football, basketball. Something comes over many people when placed in those positions - call it a "strong sense of obligation." I've done it. And, once there, I immediately lose all sense of personal attachments. All that matters is getting the calls right. 

Being a news person should be like that: Once charged with such an office, that powerful sense of obligation should take over. Yet, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC, among others, seem perfectly comfortable with shading the truth in directions most palatable to their viewers. That is not news; it is entertainment. 

On Monday, June 5, Anne Navarro, co-host of "The View," in an apparent effort to please her audience, purposefully served up a misleading version of Biden's Saturday fall while exiting the stage at a graduation ceremony. "He fell," she said, "and then got right back up..." No, Anna, he did not. Biden fell. When he braced his hands against the stage in an effort to push himself back up, he faltered again. Biden's handlers had to bodily lift him up from off the floor. It would have been better had Anna told us the truth, especially since most people had already seen the same footage, which had been repeatedly aired on a number of stations throughout the weekend.

There was no shame in Biden's fall, nor any shame in his struggles to regain his fee. It was simply a human moment. The shame occurred when a person entrusted with informing the public re-orders events with a version that would not likely suit her viewership. If you cannot relate fundamental truths that we commoners have already witnessed, how can you be trusted to inform upon more complicated matters that we have had no access to? 

Detaching myself from people and their emotions while working a game, made me a better referee, a better umpire. The failure to detach themselves from people who expect their biases to be satisfied, render many in the media unfit to call balls and strikes. Therein lies the gulf that exists between the media and the people who depend upon them.