Saturday 21 May 2011

The road to truth involves a certain amount of diarrhoea.

Referred to the Middle East, although applicable throughout the world:

Too many journalists report official narratives of the powerful, missing the stories of working class people.


Too often, you consumers of mainstream media are victims of a fraud. You think you can trust the articles you read - why wouldn't you? You think you can sift through the ideological bias and just get the facts. But you don't know the ingredients that go into the product you buy. It is important to understand how knowledge about current events in the Middle East is produced before relying on it. Even when there are no apparent ideological biases, such as those one often sees when it comes to reporting about Israel, there are fundamental problems at the epistemological and methodological level. These create distortions, falsehoods and justify the narrative of those with power.[...]


the road to truth involves a certain amount of diarrhoea. [...]


There are many brave and dedicated journalists working in the Middle East whose work deserves attention and praise. Some even work for the mainstream media. Too often their independent voices are drowned out by the mass of writers who justify power instead of opposing it. Our job should not be about speaking truth to power. Those in power know the truth, they just don't care. It's about speaking truth to the people, to those not in power, in order to empower them.


full article in AlJazeera, by Nir Rosen is a journalist from the US

No comments: