Selling the News

See, opinions are easier to swallow than facts
The greys instead of the whites and the blacks
If you shoot it too straight it won't come back
We're selling the news
From "Selling the News" by Switchfoot

I've been thinking recently about the media - and our culture in general - and how dishonest it tends to be. Some friends knew someone who passed away recently, and the media plastered his face on the front of newspapers and spread the story that the guy might have died from a drug overdose. But when the results came back, they were clean. Can you imagine what that must have done to his family? The media don't care, they just want to sell newspapers.

I have a challenge for you, if you're tired of the lies and half-truths we're told all the time, and want some more transparency in our culture:
- Refuse to gossip. Don't spread gossip unless you're discussing it with someone who's part of the problem or part of the solution.
- Check out "facts" before telling them as facts. We might hear something interesting, and pass it on as fact, but I've heard a few different things people tell me are facts, when they're not.

If you do these things, and get others you know to do them, we can begin to transform our dishonest culture. Spread the word, not the lies.