Journalists....

A parable about them....

Once upon a time there were some story tellers. They called themselves journalists. At first they tried to tell the truth. So that is what they did. They called this being objective.

But eventually, they generally believed that truth was just matter in motion. So the way they viewed being objective changed. Now they felt that the more like an object they were, the more objective and so the more truthful they were. But really, the more like an object they were, the more they became dead in the head.

There was another group of men who came to realize this. And they saw that dead in the head journalists who were like objects might be easy use for some story telling. For journalists were treating false views as if they were true views to prove their objectivity. They would give equal time to false views and true views. Treating the false as equal with the truth came to be common with them.

So the group of men began to be as false and barbaric as possible and this was treated as if it was true. The men began using terror because this would be treated as justified or equal with the truth while at the same time shaping opinion by fear. They became better at this use of the journalists. The journalists did not object so much, for they were just being like objects which meant they were being objective. So they treated all subjects as objects, all equal.

But people came to realize what journalists and terrorists were doing. They realized that both had to be fought. So that is what they began doing. Generally, they won the fight against journalists and terrorists.

But one day some terrorist and journalists caught a good guy and he was layed low by it. Terrorists were using religious places, so that journalists would report that the good guys fighting them were being Big Meanies. They would also play dead and then blow themselves up when marines came. Or try to shoot them in the face, etc. They were relying on the good guys being good guys, you see. This day a good guy thought that all the terrorists were supposed to be dead in one of these places. So when he saw one move, he shot him in the head.

Then a journalist ran off with the story about the shooting in the head of a wounded man, just like the terrorists wanted. It was like a little team, the terrorists and the journalists. One would feed the other the pattern of a story and the other would pay them back by telling it, just the way they wanted it told. For the terrorists were story tellers too.

The good guys wondered why so many good stories remained untold and one asked a journalist this once. The journalist replied, "But we will report on you when you are dead and stop fighting. Then you are an object for us to tell stories about. And can you not see the objectivity of that! Yes, the objectivity of me."