Being a member of the Night Stalker cult, I was pretty excited. I missed the season premier on September 29th, but tuned in last Thursday.
Man, was I disappointed. Based on the episode I watched, the new show isn’t Night Stalker at all. ABC has produced X-Files and called it “Night Stalker.” They gave one of the leading characters the name “Carl Kolchak,” but not the personality. Instead of an ungraceful but endearing reporter who works by himself, they have given us a cool GQ character with the now-obligatory female sidekick (who isn’t even a sidekick; she’s as much a part of the show as Kolchak). And although both characters are called “reporters,” there are no newsroom scenes and they behave like police officers.
It’s hardly the first time that a media outlet has misled me. When I watch network news, they say, “Coming right up, the big story about X,” even though the big story won’t come for another three or four segments. They also routinely hype stories well beyond their importance. When I tune into a big sporting event, the advertised time is wrong by at least ten minutes, if not an hour or more.
Is it a big deal? A lot of people think it isn’t. “That's just their way of making sure you stay tuned. The more that people stay tuned, the more advertising dollars for them.”
That’s correct, of course, but that doesn't make it right and, in fact, the idea that profit is a legitimate justification is rather startling.
If money from commercials is a legitimate reason to lie about little thing, doesn't it follow that networks have a legitimate reason to lie about big things? After all, if a network can broadcast big and important news stories, its viewership will increase and advertisers will pay more. And if it needs to distort facts or invent footage in order to turn an ordinary story into a big story, isn't that legitimate?
Every time the media is caught lying or exaggerating or distorting (food dangers in Food Lion grocery stores, the alar apple scare, the danger of side-mounted fuel tanks, CNN in Iraq), they come back, assuring us that such things are isolated events and that they can be trusted.
But then they continue to lie or mislead about little things, like, “We’re resurrecting Night Stalker.”
Misleading conduct dots the landscape of the way media conducts everyday business. Arguably, it's habitual.
And they get away with it. And as long as they get away with it, they'll keep on lying or misleading about the little things. And as long as they continue to lie and mislead about little things, we can assume they are capable of lying or misleading about the big things. When mendacity is part of your MO, mendacity is going to manifest itself many different ways, not just the little and harmless.
For me, I'll never trust them until I see honesty every day.
A very wise man once said that a person can be trusted with big things once he can be trusted with little things. The flip side is also true: if a person cannot be trusted with little things, he cannot be trusted with big things.
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Eric Scheske is an attorney, the Editor of The Daily Eudemon, a Contributing Editor of Godspy, and the former editor of Gilbert Magazine.
