Losing Control--- Losing A Chance

Whenever I am  out teaching or speaking or whatever, inevitably someone is going to ask about this concept of fake news and the like.I don’t play that game.  If you try to answer the question, the question will oftentimes dive right into a cultural debate on whatever issue than anything else.

“The Story is the Story,” is all I will say.

The story is what you should pay attention to...the rest of it is just background noise.

That leads us to this gun protest story.  

A group is walking from Worcester to Springfield this month in protest over what they say are too many dangerous guns, among other things in the marketplace.

The group announced this week that joining them for the roughly 50 mile walk will be David Hogg one of the survivors of the Parkland Shootings.  He has been the face for fun reform throughout the country and has been on media tours in the past.

And, that is the problem

Once we personalize the issue in this manner, we all lose control of the real issues surrounding the story.

If David Hogg does not come to town, does that mean somehow the main issues change in the gun debate?If he comes to town, does that suddenly mean that the issue will finally be resolved?It is not just this issue.  It is all that the media does when covering such events.

The story is the story.  The person talking could be black or white, rich or poor,  man or woman.

The report will not change, I promise.

But what we do by making one person the face of the story is make it “show” rather than “substance.”

And, that’s when we lose control as a nation of a way to maybe get everyone understanding what the issues are rather than yelling at each other about it.