fact-checking

I spent the middle of the first day of the second decade of the 21st Century with my youngest son, a graduate of Penn State, watching his Nittany Lions play—and, sadly, lose to—the Florida Gators in this year's Outback Bowl. As I watched Joe Paterno and Urban Meyer lead their teams, I reflected on a couple of things about the modern world, here at the start of 2011.

A couple of weeks ago, the internet was buzzing with the sensational news: this would be Joe Pa's last game—that there was uncertainty he would even be well enough to be on the sidelines for the bowl game on New Year's Day. The rumor mill assured us that Joe was ill, that he was suffering from cancer, that at 84, his 37th bowl appearance would be his last. Last week, Joe, the PSU Athletics Department, players and family members alike denied the rumors that Paterno was leaving State, and that he was suffering from ill health.

It occurred to me that rumors of this ilk have, of late, taken on lives of their own. I considered every piece of email I have received screaming that one horrible and dramatic thing or another was immanent, that some bill was about to pass the House of Representatives that would outlaw toenails or force me to sell my grandchildren into slavery or make me give up my right to an opinion... you know the ones I am taking about. And I realized that, just perhaps, this newfound technology of ours which allows us to communicate at the speed of light may have actually outstripped our wisdom to rightly use it.

I remember as a kid watching movies wherein newspaper publishers and reporters (you remember newspapers: those big sheets of grayish paper with print on them that would rub off on your hands) would refuse to print a story until they had checked their facts. Many newspapers and magazines even had a fact-checking desk or department, to assure that what they printed was true and accurate.
But in this day of the 'blog, wherein every guy like me with a dim idea and a desire to say something remarkable can make nonsense available worldwide instantaneously, I think we have subsumed the desire to be accurate to the desire to be first, or if not first, then sensational. Fact-checking has taken a back seat to immediacy, and I think we are dumber for it, because there is no end to what people will believe and pass on as fact. I am reminded of Simone in Ferris Bueller's Economics class, explaining his absence: "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."

Is it any wonder, then, that we who claim to have knowledge of The Truth are looked upon with, if not scorn, at least skepticism? We find ourselves in a world where folks who once have been burned by the news flash are twice shy to accept another claim to truth. It is why we need to work so hard to build relationship before we have anything to say. Those we encounter must know us and trust us before they will trust that we have any line on truth. And we need to make sure we are checking our facts.