...and the truth shall make you free...

I used to contribute to my little hometown paper. After a new editor and I failed to see eye to eye on a small handful of issues, we decided I don’t contribute to the paper anymore. That’s OK. We all have boundaries. In the process of the break up, I came to appreciate the power of the press more than I had before. Both my parents had worked in the newspaper industry (my mom as a typesetter/printer and my dad as a linotype operator, before the days of computerization), and I figured I had a healthy respect for the creation, description and dissemination of the facts. When news was not news, but opinion, it was clearly labeled just that: opinion. Before recently, I hadn’t considered the ‘responsibility’ of the editor to tell readers what they’re reading before they read it, via the headline (nor the possibility that editors or publishers in small-town America might be in the business of propaganda). A headline not only summarize a piece, but can easily influence the opinions of readers before a piece is read. Not to say news headlines are bad, but their power shouldn’t be taken lightly. Additionally, an editor has authority to alter the content of a piece, even if just to change the tone or feel of it. The power of the editor to determine what you read in the paper is absolute. For years, we’ve known that the news media is biased. Realize that reading the newspaper, even in hometown Texas, is an act of trust. Realize you see what one person thinks you should see, and you will not see what that person doesn’t want you to see, whether it be due to political, professional or personal reasons; that’s just the way it is. It’s the human factor in reporting “just the facts, ma’am.” So what is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? The only way to know for sure is to see and hear what people are doing and saying, not necessarily what somebody tells you someone said or did. That’s a lot of reading and watching, to be sure. The good thing is, between handheld devices that record secret conversations and those that take digital video recordings in impromptu situations, we can usually find the whole truth about sensational news stories in a few days’ time, notwithstanding having to look a little more closely and search more diligently to find it. There will always be some who don’t want the whole truth to be told, too, and will actively try to conceal it. (We’ve seen that in national media recently.) I’m reminded of William Tyndale, who was martyred in 1536 for refusing to be silent regarding what he held to be the whole truth. Tyndale believed all people, even the “poor plow boy,” should have access to the written word of God in the English language, during a time when only licensed clergy could openly preach what the Bible said. Most couldn’t read scriptures at that time anyway, as it was written in Greek and Hebrew. Tyndale is credited for translating the original Greek and Hebrew script into English. Much of what we have now, in the King James version of the Bible, came directly from Tyndale’s translations. William Tyndale’s last words were a prayer to God that the King of England have his eyes opened to the truth. So is my prayer, that we all have our eyes opened to the truth. Let us return to the original “Greek and Hebrew,” if need be. Let us not be persuaded by the filters and prejudices of editors, writers, talking heads or anyone else. Not only must we dig deeper for truth about what has been done and said, but we must come to a reasonable notion of what to make of it all. We must shake the ties that bind our thoughts, placed by those who’ve made it their business to tell us what to think. Let the eyes of our understanding be opened to truth. Let us seek for and find the truth. If we truly seek, we shall find. “And the truth shall make us free.” (John 8:32)

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