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Avoid Self-Deception in News Reading: With an Example!

Avoid Self-Deception in News Reading: With an Example!

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 4:57 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Avoid Self-Deception in News Reading: With an Example! 2017-01-24T16:57:28-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Let’s love our neighbor enough to investigate bad stories on our neighbor.

I am tempted to like stories more that fit what I wish was, is, and will be. If there is a headline that says “Evidence Shows Bible True!,” then I am tempted to click on it and be (just a bit!) less skeptical about what it says.

Nobody rational thinks this bias is all good, the dangers of confirmation bias are well known, but then most of the time this filter serves a very useful function. I have thought very, very hard about the Bible and truth, so stories that give new reasons to think this conclusion correct are not surprising. They are even a bit encouraging, like the “but wait there is more. . .” in a commercial. We have necessary and sufficient evidence to believe in God’s Word, but wait there is more!

This bias helps filter the flood of information we get. If I have bad experiences at this food court, then I ignore their advertisement. If I love the food court, then the advertisement catches my eye. All of this is nifty, until my bias makes me an easy mark for people on my side telling lies.

In fact, if one is not careful, one cannot see an event or person as is, but only through the bias!

I have never been to a conservative, Christian event reported in the media in a manner that bore any resemblance to my experience. All this began in high school, when I marched in Washington at an event called Washington for Jesus. When I turned to stories the next day in the Washington Post, the event I attended disappeared. My friends (including my future wife!) prayed for the country, but evidently we were there to pick a presidential candidate or to bring back the 1950’s . . . or something.

I did find my first Space Invaders machine and waste many quarters, but don’t recall having a single political thought other than when an earnest grandma handed me some stuff on a Congressman named Crane who was running for President. I was too young to vote in 1980’s election, so I did not pay it much mind and went back to praying for righteousness, justice, and an end to the murder of unborn children.

This has continued over the years. Once a senior editor for a Gannet newspaper visited my school and said (when I asked) that she believed any Pentecostal was unfit for public office. I began to wonder if she could cover the charismatic movement (big news at the time) fairly. If ignorance of Pentecostal theology was bliss, then she should would have been happy all the time.

Yet she felt free to opine.

I say this, because stories about the President are beginning to sound a good bit like people finding what they expect to find and not bothering to check. Here is an example from USA Today. Note the headline: “Trump’s first proclamation lacks the humility of his predecessors.”

Reread this and ask: how would one go about confirming or refuting this statement?

I found the story, because of my own near failure at giving our President a chance. My newsfeed filled up with stories of a North Korea like National Day of Patriotism proclaimed by our President on (how accidental!) the day of his inauguration. Following my snort of derision, the sort of annoying non-thought one has to go to college to learn, all that Socratic reading kicked into gear.

Really?

What did it say?

I read it and it was pretty standard American political rhetoric. I then discovered everyone else issues such stuff at their inaugurations. Most of the stories in my social media feed did not even mention this fact. The story was pitched to make Trump look as if he loved his own installation so much that he had taken to delusions of godhood.

Obama called one of his inaugural days: “A Day of National Hope and Resolve.”

If you felt like making fun of President Obama, there was a title for you. Did hope begin on that day? What of those who did not vote for him? What were we resolving?

In any case, USA Today must be too ethical to pretend (as many in my feed are doing) that Trump had decided ex nihilo to replace the Fourth of July with Trump Day. Instead, they found someone who found the proclamation “less humble” than those in the past.

Read both. Here is Trump’s:

A Proclamation

A new national pride stirs the American soul and inspires the American heart. We are one people, united by a common destiny and a shared purpose.

Freedom is the birthright of all Americans, and to preserve that freedom we must maintain faith in our sacred values and heritage.

Our Constitution is written on parchment, but it lives in the hearts of the American people. There is no freedom where the people do not believe in it; no law where the people do not follow it; and no peace where the people do not pray for it.

There are no greater people than the American citizenry, and as long as we believe in ourselves, and our country, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2017, as National Day of Patriotic Devotion, in order to strengthen our bonds to each other and to our country—and to renew the duties of Government to the people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.

Perhaps the worst case of bad reading and bias of this document I saw come from a reader who gave a snort at the religious right invading our secular White House and using “in the year of our Lord” Religious nuts are in the White House!

Of course, Obama used the same formulation . . . as all Presidents do, since our Constitution does. Is the Constitution unconstitutional? Was every other President part of the religious right? We are more powerful than I thought.

But one must ask, “How is the Trump document ‘less humble,’ than this proclamation by Obama?”

Four years ago, the American people came together to chart a new course through an uncertain hour. We chose hope over fear and hard work during hardship, confident that the age-old values that had guided our Nation through even its darkest days would be sufficient to meet the trials of our time.

Together, we have brought a decade of war toward a responsible end. We have saved our economy from collapse and fought for a future where everyone has an equal chance at opportunity. Millions of men, women, and children have made service their mission, reaffirming that America’s greatest strength lies not in might or wealth, but in the bonds we share with one another.

Today, I have sworn an oath to preserve the fundamental freedoms and protections that are the lasting birthright of all who call this land home. I stand humbled by the responsibilities entrusted to me by our people, and I pray God’s grace will see us through the tests we will surely face in the days ahead. But even as I assume once more the solemn duty of this Presidency, let us also remember that the oath I spoke shares much in common with those taken by every service member and every immigrant, and with the pledge we make before our flag. These are the words of America’s citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.

On the opposite end of the National Mall from where I delivered my address, a preacher once told us “we cannot walk alone.” Empowered by our faith in each other and united by the purpose that binds our fates as one, let us learn again that most enduring lesson. Let us renew our resolve to meet the challenges of our age together. And when our grandchildren reflect on the history we leave, let them say we did what was required of us, that our words were true to our Founders’ dreams for a young Republic and our actions foretold the dawn of a new and brighter day.

Now, Therefore, I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 21, 2013, a National Day of Hope and Resolve. I call upon all Americans to join together in courage, in compassion, and in purpose to more fully realize the eternal promises of our founding and the more perfect Union that must remain ever within our reach.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

I am not sure how to measure humility, but I will point out that President Obama points to his own record in office (this was his second) that he uses the “I” a good bit more than Trump. He also may imply that his election was a choice for hope over fear. I married Hope, not fear. When voting for McCain and then Romney, I never recall: “Let’s vote for fear!”

Of course, such proclamations are always a bit windy and more than a bit pompous, but Trump’s seems pretty “humble.” He doesn’t speak in the first person until time to sign, it is all “we” until then, and he does not refer to his own election.

In short, Trump behaved in a normal manner, whatever one thinks of this custom, and the media made him look bad for no good reason.

This is not just wrong, but stupid. It encourages ignoring any real criticism that media makes of Trump.

This story in USA Today is opinion, badly argued opinion, disguised as news. My social media feed is full of people who see what they want to see and use confirmation bias to see Trump ego where none is present.

When it comes to a “hot” issue like politics (or religion!), we need special care with stories that fit our prior beliefs. We could ignore the problem and just hit share assuming “any stick to beat a dog.”

Let’s think together, instead.

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