It may be more accurate to say that distorted reporting is being presented to the public in a way that discourages discernment of the truth, and while I have been aware for years of media bias, events of the last week or so has reminded me of how easily, and cleverly, we are misled.
I will give you a couple of examples: I saw on Sky News a migrant violently seizing his wife, holding a baby, and throwing them on to railway lines in protest as they waited for transport in Hungary. It was a brutal, unprovoked act, but much subsequent reporting said that Hungarian police had thrown all of them on the tracks, and most of the video replays showed the emotional aftermath of the event not the event itself. Some media outlets corrected the inaccuracy later, but a false, and lasting impression was created at the time.
Understandably, news outlets have been dominated by the recent violence at the Hungarian border. The police may have been excessive in their defence of the line in the face of mob attack by frustrated young migrant men, but I wondered as reporters and spokesmen focused critically and exclusively on the attitude and tactics of the Hungarian authorities: how many people know that 20 policemen were wounded in the clashes, or that two young migrant children were hurt when they were thrown over the border fence as a gesture of protest by their angry fathers?
No situation is black and white, and one day history may look at this movement of millions of people across the world in a very different way, for the truth always emerges. There is tragedy, sadness, hurt and wrong in all of it, and also some wonderful acts of bravery and kindness. Innocent people have been caught up in a desperate crisis, but while efforts to assist them are intense, there are many who are taking advantage of an opportunity to help themselves in a way that is cruel and damaging, and others who are standing back and doing nothing in impotence or fear.
It is a pity that a more balanced, neutral way of giving us information about all aspects of any event is not the media norm. Journalists could report with compassion without the need for hyperbole, or to shock, though their masters, intent on raising audience or readership levels, might disagree. It is all about discernment of the truth, in them, and in us.
(Image by Philip Medhurst)
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