Hello Abd,
I feel your heartful spirit in this sharing, and enjoy a sense of knowing
you as you are.
Shared collaborative exploration of ever more mysterious and subtle details
inevitably leads to discovery-experience of single infinite unity.
Rich
----- Original Message -----
From: "Abd ul-Rahman Lomax" <a...@lomaxdesign.com>
To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com>; "Vortex" <vortex-l@eskimo.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Vo]:OT (sort of): Challenging Dogma
At 04:19 PM 3/27/2010, OrionWorks - Steven Vincent Johnson wrote:
It was recently opined here that it is not the job of a reporter to
challenge dogma. This was followed up with another opinion: That the job of
a reporter is to find and present facts - that science reporters should
find and present scientific fact.
It's tricky. Facts challenge dogma. Or confirm
it. A science reporter should report discovered
fact whether it challenges dogma or not,
according to the interests of the "market," the
audience for the reporter. The market for honest
reporters is those who will rely upon the
reports, so it's very important that the reporter
be neutral. And that can be difficult.
Nevertheless, this is the task of a journalist.
Personally, I think challenging dogma IS one of the many jobs that an
investigative journalist performs.
Only in the way I've described. When the reporter
becomes attached to some "alternate dogma," --
which might simply be the reporter's own opinion,
informed or otherwise -- it is not the job of the
reporter to promote that alternative to
"challenge dogma." The reporter has become the story, has lost neutrality.
Neutrality does not mean that the report abandons
personal conclusions. It does not mean ignoring
the obvious. But it does mean allowing the reader
to discriminate, to present to the reader the
sources for the journalist's opinion, in balance.
Balance means that if sources of similar probity
exist that support the other side (than the
reporter's opinion), the reporter will present
those as well. Strong personal bias on the part
of the reporter can cause a failure of the
reporter to even notice the other sources; the
same traps that cause anyone to become biased can happen to a reporter.
.....
