When is reporting actually reporting?

Is this what our culture has come to? When we don’t even know how to report anything anymore? When everything becomes some big show about our feelings or what we think?

I ask because I have been reading a lot about Mike Leach lately. Maybe it is because I am in Big 12 country or that I have family in Lubbock who have strong Tech opinions. I don’t know but what strikes me is the lack of actual reporting that is taking place. All I read are opinions masked as news.

No one stops to check any part of the story. No one stops to do some research to know the facts. No, they go out and tell people what someone said never even checking to see if it is accurate. The “news” gets out and you don’t even know the facts.

Is this where our culture is? Have we fallen so far that truth doesn’t matter? Where we only care about how someone feels about the situation? Both sides seem more interested in dealing with feelings instead of facts. Mom and dad felt it was wrong. Some people feel like mom and dad are wrong. No one seems interested in finding out what happened and reporting on it.

We need to be warned because this way of thinking permeates the church today. People are more worried about what someone feels about something instead of what the facts are. Conflict arises in church and we follow the pattern of this world.

It seems that both sides should have done some more work finding out what really happened instead of splashing it on the front page of papers and television. What happened to mom and dad finding out all of the facts of a situation? What happened to the other side trying to understand a parents concern?

This entire episode sheds so much light on what is wrong in our culture of information overload where finding out what is true matters less than making a splash or trying to expose some wrong without accurate information.

The reporters seem to think that saying “if this is actually true” absolves them from finding out what really happened. Remind me again why you are a reporter? So many people preaching about what they think should have been done with a disclaimer that admits they don’t even know what happened. Can we not see the absurdity of this? Can we not see how easily this infiltrates the church? I don’t expect ESPN or The Dallas Morning News to do the right thing but be warned, when the church acts like this… we are in a sad state.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:1-4