........... and thank you for adding your common sense to this thread.

Eh. Not being semantic here but there really is a difference between "reporting the truth" and "reporting truthfully."

If ABC news reports a live stream showing Senator Jimbob proclaiming that he won the Senate by 4 million votes...

and he actually only won it by 20 votes...

ABC news is reporting a lie. But they are reporting it truthfully.

Lawyers wreck havoc with eye witness accounts of things mainly because the truth is a very hard thing to get at often.

A law professor would have come right down your throat if you ever made a statement with the word truth in it. At least, the first year of law school.

Except this has nothing to do with the law. It has to do with journalistic integrity.

In my above example, the news reported something that really did actually happen. Senator Jimbob really did state that he won by 4 million votes. They have it on video, the video is datemarked and timestamped, and it was reported live, in front of millions of witnesses. The statement made by Jimbob really did happen exactly as it was reported. The report itself - is a truthful report.

But the report's topic was about a lie. The fact that he lied is the topic. So it was a truthful accounting of a lie. The report wasn't a lie. And the topic wasn't true.

Does everyone know that on any post that anyone can click on the poster's screen name and then can read prior posts from the same poster? Many of us were worried that even someone that we disagreed with would feel really bad? It is sometimes very necessary to pay attention to all that is happening. I think that you might have taken something at face value when other indicators that there was more to the story. Sometimes there are posts removed that would have made sense to a lot of things, but the moderator knows best.

OK. I get that.

"Truth" is one of those words that drive philosophers nuts.

I write a lot of journalists on Facebook and they are very prone to mistakes especially on live broadcasts. Some make fun of themselves. Especially to their Facebook fan bases.

There are "journalists" who seem more like Howard Stern type loudmouths even if I often like Stern's rants he just throws out stuff to shock listeners or watchers to bump up his ratings.

:bigbow::bigbow:

Ah yes truth. Searching for it. Waiting for it. Perhaps tomorrow, some of us will smile silently and those with no manners will say " nah nah nah nah nah nah.".

Since the poking at each other did not cease. This thread is closed.

Moderator