Should Journalism Be About Truth? (And What Might That Mean?)

Shayna needs to miss a second show, but will be returning next week. Chris considers the practice of journalism in America today, in preparation for the What In God’s Name interview with Jeff MacDonald, coming up in October.

Here at What In God’s Name we are realists about truth, not relativists: truth has an independent existence apart from any one individual’s perceptions (for example, people tell lies; the existence of lies means that there exists truth that stands above perception or distortion, and has authority). Problems arise, however, when a person or group of people claim to know the whole truth. The antidote to such overweaning pride is humility in front of truth: we need each other to help all of us, together, to see more clearly.

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What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.

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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:

01:32     Chris resets the premise of What In God’s Name. We LOVE conversation; dialogue is our means of knowing; we need each other to understand what is going on in the world. Our lens (to use the metaphor of optics) is theology and philosophy.

04:58     Chris invites listeners to 5 minutes of reflection on journalism. How does journalism relate to our being citizens? To our being a self-governing people? 

06:04     “The more desparately the press chases readers, the more it resembles our politics.” Agree or disagree?

06:54     How does a journalist’s worldview affect what s/he finds newsworthy?

07:42     How does the pressure to get people to consume journalism by manufacturing outrage, affect our ability to be self-governing? Or does it not matter?

08:10     Should the practice of journalism be about finding what is true?