Sure it’s fake, but the hunger is real
Sometimes, in anger, fear, haste, or perhaps while intoxicated or consumed by infatuation, we speak, write, or communicate to others through body language a distorted version of what our true thoughts, opinions, or intentions are.
Distortion happens to all of us and we suffer, usually out of shame, as a result. It is one of the many attributes that, for lack of a better label, makes us human. “I did not mean that”. “That’s not what I said.” “That’s not what I meant.” It’s almost a safe bet that you’ve uttered, firmly stated, or perhaps yelled one of the aforementioned quotes. It doesn’t matter.
Falling back when speaking never seems to be a mistake that is overcome with age, education or faith. Just past. I ask this question: What if your words or the words being said about you were misrepresented by an individual or entity (media) and the sole purpose of this misrepresentation was simply to add a bit of spice, wonder, or head-shaking to what what else would it be? To be boring?
Let me add this bit of information to give you a hint of where I’m going with all of this. I spent a block of my adult working life on the job of a very large broadcast news organization. I was an on-air talent, as it’s called, and as a result, I got a “certain perspective” on the media.
As a phrase, tag, or headline, Fake News has been around, in my opinion, since the day news began in the stone age. Come on, admit it: doesn’t everyone like a good story?
Getting the story is the hardest part of reporting the story. In college, in journalism class, they taught the mechanics of the interview, but not the reality. The reality is being under a time gun, a deadline, dealing with a producer or a news director. Time is running out and you have a story to get and you need it, now! And it had better be good, because recent college grads are constantly lining up and ready to take their place.
So let’s take our reporter, on any given day, tasked with getting the story on Mr. Jones.
Going back to the first day of journalism class: The teacher asks, “What is the news?” And the shocking, head-kicking, almost comical answer is; Whatever the reporter does. That’s quite a powerful position, don’t you think?
Let’s go back to our scenario. However, Mr. Jones cannot be located. The reporter turned around, hit the pavement and some doors and couldn’t find Mr. Jones. There’s still a deadline and all the other pressure to produce a story. What should the reporter do?
Think fast. If you’re a reporter, you have no choice but to think fast. The answer to this puzzle is to interview someone who knows Mr. Jones, who could be an immediate family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, an ex-spouse, or how about that former employer. And the clock ticks, ticks, ticks.
The reporter locates Mr. Smith, a good friend of the missing in action, Mr. Jones. This puts Mr. Smith in what could be called an awkward position. Feeling trapped and uncomfortable, Mr. Smith realizes he had better do his best not to embarrass himself or his good friend Mr. Jones. After all, once cornered for the interview, if Mr. Smith told the reporter that he had nothing to say about Mr. Jones, there might be a problem.
The reporter, tick, tick, tick, might as well report that he asked Mr. Smith, a good friend of Mr. Jones’s, but Mr. Smith refused to answer any of a dozen questions and the reporter would take that nothing. and would intrigue your listeners, viewers, or readers with speculation as to why Mr. Smith kept quiet about Mr. Jones. Remember, whatever the reporter does is news.
Surprisingly, no story becomes a great story based on the fact that there is no story to tell, but once a reporter knows that Mr. Smith offers no voluntary answers, it opens the floodgates for the listener, the viewer or the reader draw their own conclusions. This type of thinking can be applied even if the reporter asks the most absurd questions on a deadline, for example, Does Mr. Jones talk to aliens? When was the last time he saw Mr. Jones lose his temper? He Is he rude to less fortunate people? Does he act differently during the Christmas season? You get the picture. Not talking can be worse than saying something.
This very thought crosses Mr. Smith’s mind, so he reluctantly and nervously agrees to an interview with the reporter who has been harassing him all day.
Face to face with the reporter, Mr. Smith does his best to flash a smile as he tells the reporter that Mr. Jones is always in a good mood and is loved by friends and neighbors and impresses everyone he meets, because He has such a positive attitude. attitude. There are no clouds in Mr. Jones’s life, just sun all day. He gives one hundred and ten percent of his energy to his industry and takes pride in his work. Devotion to family is a testament to his character and whatever he reaps he gives to his wife.
Mr. Jones sounds like the Man of the Year for the reporter, but the reporter has to appeal to the listener, viewer, or reader, so he has to have some trouble and some good old-fashioned gossip. , because without it, listeners, viewers, or readers will be looking for greener (dirtier) pastures to graze on.
Remember, whatever the reporter does. It is time for the Fake News apparatus to be applied to this story. Bring out the seasonings and let’s spice this baby up. Get the spinning party started! And so, the interview is archived by the reporter.
Mr. Jones is not the serious type and has a salesman’s way of telling him what buttons to push to get people to like him. He devotes so much time to his work that Mr. Jones could be labeled a slave to labor in his industry and finds no time for devotion to anything that does not benefit him personally. A habit that he repeats all the time is spoiling her wife, perhaps for fear of losing her to a more complete man.
Just think of the frustration Mr. Jones will have when he finds out about the interview Mr. Smith gave him. Mr. Smith has nowhere to hide and I suspect that Mr. Jones will transform into a misplaced clone of himself when he confronts Mr. Smith.
The reporter makes it sound credible by citing a source, or in what has become increasingly common, an anonymous source, or a close source, or the Russians!
Now that you’ve read this article, you may remember that the news is whatever the reporter does, and shock value is increasing.
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