What’s in a Quote? Real Facts, I Hope

My friend, Tom Dennis, gave me this idea; he knew someone who wrote a blog about the messages he found in his fortune cookies. I thought I’d do the same, with a little twist. At our office, we come up with famous (and not-so-famous) quotes that reflect the way we feel.

This week’s quote is from Mark Twain: “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as you please.”

Humor aside, Mr. Twain, I came up with this quote based on the “alternative facts” that have been bantered around by our current presidential administration. Now, I’m not going to use this blog as a forum for politics, but aren’t facts the basis for just about everything we do?

As a trained journalist, I whole-heartedly believe in going the extra mile to the real story. Sometimes, I don’t like what I find at the end of the road, while other times, it’s quite a delight. I watch the evening news and comment, usually more than once a week, about how there is “no good news.” It’s a fact, then, that our news is consumed with content that isn’t very pleasant, and yet, getting those facts straight the first time is so vitally important.

I saw a news item just yesterday on Kellyanne Conway’s appearance on the morning news shows who broadened President Trump’s assertion concerning “wire tapping,” indicating, without confirming, that he meant the issue was broader. This is a clear case that she did not have her facts straight. Now, I think Ms. Conway seems to be an intelligent person; a few weeks ago, I saw a profile of her on CBS Sunday Morning and she came off reasonably sane. In the case of the morning news shows just yesterday, she was anything but sane.

Let’s all strive to get the facts accurate; facts are the basis of responsible journalism.

And, yes, we will blog about what we put up on the whiteboard.