Editorial: News Literacy Week and our duty to a loving skepticism
Our editor was invited to participate Saturday in the third annual Barrington Town-Warming, a community civics event meant to address the topics of the day.
He was asked to serve on a panel discussing media on politics in an election year.
That's a broad topic, and as we write this in advance of the conversation, we suspect the panel could touch only on a slice of it. But the topic was timely and not just for all the obvious reasons that any election season generates.
As it happens, the event took place on the eve of National News Literacy Week and nothing could be more pertinent to our current politics and to the misinformation age our republic has lately been suffering.
We don't just confront somewhat-unavoidable bias these days. We also confront manipulation, false assumptions and lies on an alarming scale - aided by technology capable not only of disseminating misinformation with wide range and breathtaking speed, but capable also of sizing up our gullibilities.
Unfortunately, it is easy for any of us to be complicit in this culture of misinformation, easy without even trying for any of us to place a priority on reinforcing our beliefs rather than on learning and challenging them.
It's not just what we watch and what we read. It's also who we hang with and what arguments we allow into and keep out of our conversations. The tribal instinct extends to political thought as much as it does to any nationality or geography.
One side ridicules the other as ignorant or racist. One side dismisses the other as unpatriotic or foolish.
This is not the language of elevation or enlightenment. It is a language only of power and dominion.
It certainly does not build toward that more perfect union.
As we have said in this space in the past, we as citizens have obligations in a government of the people.
It's not good enough just to reside here and blindly cheer on our favorite politicians. And it's not good enough just to believe whatever we believe.
As citizens, we have an obligation to ourselves and to our country to be informed.
And part of being informed is to challenge, to offer a loving skepticism.
We encourage you, as citizens, to explore NewsLiteracyWeek.org to check its themes on the information landscape, identifying standards-based journalism, understanding bias, recognizing misinformation, and learning more about the role of journalism as democracy's watchdog.
The website provides tools and tips to help increase your news literacy. Use them and spread the word.