August 6, 1997
The news media’s criteria for what is “newsworthy” continues to fascinate this 1951 journalism graduate of Duquesne University.
Back then, we had five W’s and an H – who, what, when, where, why and how. And of course, it was a sin to even hint at an editorial comment in a news story. Accuracy, truth and objectivity were tantamount. My, how times have changed. When an athletic ingrate visits Ireland and complains the people are rude and the food is terrible, the media report it as though it were a documented eyewitness account of the finding of the true cross.
Over several days around the Promise Keepers rally at Three Rivers Stadium, I swear I heard less about the rally and its noble intentions than I did about the hysterical feminists who “denounced” the event as a threat to women’s freedom.
And, of course, there were endless references to the paranoia which insisted that Promise Keepers was some sort of political Trojan horse that was about to unleash an apocalypse on the innocent non-Christians who supposedly feared for their lives.
All of this reminded me of past times when, if any form of pro-life news event occurred, some reporter was sure to visit a nearby abortion clinic to interview someone who insisted that killing babies in their mother’s womb was as American as apple pie.
Those who disagreed were dismissed as right-wing religious fanatics.
JACK O’NEIL
Sewickley