If one were to read about what’s going on anywhere nowadays, almost often, you would notice that some articles are cleverly slanted in such a way that the actual goings-on sometimes play second only to the opinion shared by the ones writing them.
I remember one time, a contemporary of my mom who was a purist in the framework of what-when-where-how-who of news reporting, reiterated that opinion has no place at all in the news. I totally agree. But, God bless his soul, things are not what they seem anymore. It’s good enough, he isn’t around anymore to witness it.
Some instances of news reporting nowadays are more often than not, used for its format’s sake and not as it has been intended to be originally. For whatever they’re worth, what, when, where, why, who and how, have now become mere backdrops or disguises for propaganda.
Especially here in the country, whenever I come across the heading BREAKING NEWS nowadays, a part of me takes the defensive back stance, right away wary and thinking, what’s the catch? Sometimes if one’s lucky, one spots the Mickey easily and you relax a bit and sigh, ‘gotcha’. However, as the trolls of today have become smarter (a contradiction in terms, really), you get lost in the weave of whatever you’re reading or viewing in the media and, without you knowing it, the gotcha is now plopped in your court.
Once when dwelling on the subjects of how not to be duped and critical thinking, our late college teacher in Logic, Fr. Paris MM once said, take everything you hear with a grain of salt, meaning not to take them in seriously right away. But with the way things are these days, with artificial intelligence arming both the dodgy, the goon and the techie, I’m prone to say, we’re going to need more than a sack of salt and that may not even be enough. Besides, who else is into critical thinking nowadays, when practically everything is readily Google – able?
Seriously, Fr. Paris can’t be more right than in today’s reality. It’s come to be that whatever it is that anyone sees or hears has now become suspect. At this juncture, a drinking buddy is one I will readily honor with coining the term ‘budol-budol all around’. Lastly, pardon me as I borrow a quote from a popular sitcom, “the night is dark and full of terrors”. That’s only half of it, we’ve the day to contend with as well. So many hours of that.
