Reporter discusses truth in media
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> A wide ranging public discussion last week on finding truth in today’s glut of media platforms put the onus directly on the individual.
Each person must determine for himself or herself where the truth lies in any news story.
The Sept. 27 discussion on the night’s topic, “Whose Truth Is It Anyway”, was held at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library and sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Saratoga County. The evening’s lone speaker was veteran reporter Liz Benjamin, host of Capital Tonight on Spectrum News and a former reporter for the Albany Times Union and the New York Daily News. The discussion drew about 70 residents.
A graduate of the University of Rochester, Benjamin went right to the center of the issue to start the program and, as if holding a graduate seminar on media, worked outward during the 90 minute interactive discussion.
“Getting to the truth is not easy,” she said early on. “Verifying truth gets to our beliefs. Webster’s dictionary describes truth as an absence of falsity. The thing about truth unfortunately depends on your capability of verifying a fact. The problem today is we’re being given a variety of versions of facts and each side is saying their version is true.”
To make her point that truth is hard to determine, Benjamin referenced the herb cilantro. Some, she said, find it a nice addition to their food. Others, however, find that it tastes like soap.
The short lecture portion of her presentation rested on three pillars: belief, sources, and trust.
When one’s belief in a fact is shaken they begin to question what is truth, she said. This gets to the issue of fake news. If one doesn’t trust the source they begin to question what the source is providing, the so-called truth. The kernel of doubt in the truth has been planted and sometimes that is all that’s needed.
“Put the doubt in someone’s mind and it has undercut the power of the media to deliver fact,” Benjamin said, “and it’s rampant right now by both sides.”
When discussing the third pillar, trust, Benjamin admitted trust is difficult to obtain.
“You can’t have truth without trust,” she said. “Trust is the belief in the idea that what you’re being told is truthful.”
As she moved toward the more interactive part of the evening, the give and take with the audience, Benjamin dove into an area that has befuddled reporters, editors, and readers alike for ages — objectivity versus subjectivity. She was blunt.
“I submit to you that complete objectivity is not obtainable,” she said. “I bring to the table my experience as a reporter.
The best I can do as a reporter is to bring you information that’s well rounded and hope you draw your own conclusions.”
She referenced going to board meetings as a print reporter where the majority of those in attendance were in agreement on one side of an issue while a small minority was opposed. What, she asked, was she to do with her story? Was she supposed to give the minority as much play as the majority in the room despite their numbers? Was that being truthful to what happened at the meeting?
“There is no magic bot or app that filters out things that mislead you,” she said. “Listen and read as much media as possible and do it for wide ranging points of view. If you want the truth you need to come to it yourself. If you feel someone, a print reporter or an TV reporter has never lied to you, stick with them.”
She acknowledged that today’s media is so diffused and so diluted it makes it hard to determine where there’s truth.
“Truth,” she said, “is like a poll. It’s a moment in time.”
As someone who absorbs a lot of news, Benjamin said she listens to a large amount of conservative radio not only to hear what those outside her comfort zone are saying, but to get another view of what is considered to be the truth.
Once the questions started coming from the audience they came quickly and they delved into many topics. The variety of the questions gave Benjamin room to expand beyond the night’s topic and move into discussing the challenges facing print media, her years covering local board meetings, the internet, websites that she finds invaluable, the aggregation of news, Millennials, and the challenges facing reporters in a hostile environment.
“The trick of journalism,” she said, “is to find the thread of the story and present it without taking a side.”
Two years ago the League of Women Voters held a similar event on the issue of fake news. League spokeswoman Patty Garrett said the organization reached out to Benjamin after receiving multiple requests from its members for a program that was similar.
“They told us, they wanted something that would help them manage to find truth in a world filled with fear and chaos,” she said.