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| Billie Silvey |
| Media |
| Today, it often seems as if we’re swimming in words; occasionally, as if we’re drowning in them. There are so many information sources, it’s hard to determine who to listen to. Here are just a few that are important to me, together with their strengths and weaknesses. |
| April 2006 |
| Newspapers. Every morning, I read parts of the Los Angeles Times. It’s a good paper and helps give me my daily fix of news. I miss it when I travel. Many other cities seem starved for good, solid, objective news. Newspapers have changed a lot since I studied journalism. Objectivity used to be the key to news reporting. Opinions were reserved for the editorial page, and sensationalism--we called it “yellow journalism”--was avoided at all costs. Most cities had two newspapers, one delivered in the morning, and one in the evening. They often represented differing views, giving us both sides of an issue. All that has changed. So many newspapers have merged in recent years that most cities have just one. Making money trumps informing the public in many of today’s papers, and unlabeled opinion has made its way even onto the front page! Some attract readers with sensationalism. Others hew a party line. But the best newspapers still give us information with depth and accuracy. |
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| Television. Each evening, I watch The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on public television. Jim Lehrer is an old newsman, and he delivers the news straight. News value, not entertainment value, determines his choices. At a time when car chases, cute animals, and sound bites dominate many newscasts, when “If it bleeds, it leads,” Lehrer is a refreshing exception. His guests have varying views--all well-informed--giving a balanced view. Commentaries are clearly marked as such. |
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| Books. I keep at least one book going all the time, usually on the headboard of the bed so I can read a chapter before I fall asleep. Other books for other purposes--devotion, research, politics, humor--cover the coffee table and fill bookcases throughout the house. After Hurricane Katrina, I read a series of novels set in New Orleans, including Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, Anne Rice’s The Feast of All Saints and some of James Lee Burke’s crime fiction, featuring detective Dave Robicheaux. Since Christmas I’ve read gift books including Doctorow’s The March, Wallis’s God’s Politics, Jimmy Carter’s Our Endangered Values, and P. D. James’s The Lighthouse. Recent devotional books include Thomas H. Olbricht’s Lifted Up, on last year’s Pepperdine Lectures theme; Michael Yaconelli’s Messy Spirituality: God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People; and Holloway’s Living God’s Love: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality, the introduction to his Meditative Commentary on the New Testament. I’m currently working through his Matthew: Jesus Is King as a part of my devotions. I’m also reading several books on love as research for my own book on the subject. I appreciate the new honesty in devotional literature. It’s not the old “How I came to Christ and solved all my problems” approach, but neither is it wallowing in sensationalism. It recognizes that we can’t do it right on our own, which, after all, is why Jesus came. |
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| Movies. Our son Robert manages a video store, and he comes most Sunday evenings with new releases. I’ve been impressed with the serious themes of such recent films as Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, The Constant Gardener and Syriana. I also enjoyed Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. |
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| Internet. At various times during the day, I check my email and notice the headlines from several news sources. Occasionally, I’ll click one for more information, but the Internet is not a major source of news for me. I use it more often for research, but even then I try to maintain a skeptical distance. I’ve discovered too many errors presented as truth to trust everything I read there. |
| We’ve been blessed with numerous ways to get information, but that blessing can be a curse if we fail to discriminate, to consider the source and the motivation of the people involved for taking a particular approach. |