News Out Of Context
In Christian circles, you often hear the phrase “scripture taken out of context.” It refers to people picking out certain scriptures for interpretation without considering other verses on the topic or the circumstances at hand.
Similar deceptions happen elsewhere like in news media. Just this week I realized I had been deceived by a news story occurring close to home. Right after the particular incident occurred, a local station aired a video clip of police officers beating up an assailant who had been thrown from his car during a high-speed chase and was lying unconscious on the ground.
My husband and I agreed the officers were out of line and should be punished. This week the officers were acquitted of any wrong doing, and upon reading the headline, I thought, how on earth could anyone say they did not use unnecessary force. It wasn’t until this morning when a popular radio show took the time to air the whole story that I understood what really happened, and that the officers did the right thing.
Unfortunately I have come to expect to be deceived by mainstream national media, but the local media in Alabama? Why did they choose to show only the part of the video that made the situation look like a previous event in Los Angeles? Why not show the assailant running over another policeman and speeding through high traffic areas endangering many others? Why did they take media out of context to deceive the public? Just one more example that we should seek all the facts before passing judgement. Fortunately the court did that in this case.
from my notebook 