Out and About
First Baptist Church Navarre is now enrolling for preschool for 18 months to 4 years old. Classes are held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Visit www.fbcnavarre.org for more information.
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos will have a game celebration at the Saturday, August 18th game. The Wahoos invite you to celebrate the 1955 Little League teams that broke the color barrier in youth sports. See their beautifully designed ad in this issue.
The Navarre Beach Marine Science Station is hosting a car wash on August 25th at Keller Williams across from Navarre Park. All donations are being used to help fund a new ATV. See their ad for more details.
American Press Institute and Gallup polls have found that while the public’s trust of media is falling, it has not led to an increase in libel lawsuits against media organizations. However, libel and defamation suits have climbed sharply over the past several years since anyone who publishes information on Twitter or Facebook could be subject to them. Often times, I am very disappointed in the mainstream media. President Trump has decided to call the media out instead of giving them a “pass” and has highlighted “fake news” by calling out news organizations by naming their transgressions – which could be considered journalistic malpractice. These instances seem to be more and more prevalent and is giving our industry a black eye – or worse. There is also journalistic malpractice by the media by not reporting on Trump’s accomplishments to date. You would be hard pressed to find information on how our economy has expanded since Trump took office or how unemployment is the lowest in twenty years, and other obviously good news – perhaps it’s fear of admitting that Trump may be doing something positive. The definition of Fake News is: Sources that intentionally fabricate information, disseminate deceptive content, or grossly distort news reports. As long as I am working at Navarre Press there will not be any fabricated, deceptive or distorted news reports, and there hasn’t been for the eighteen years that we have been in existence.
Much to my surprise, when we returned from Orlando on Sunday we found signs all over Navarre that say “Navarre Press We are Fake News.” Rob Williamson recently posted on his campaign page under a post of Navarre Press winning their recent award from the Florida Press, “You will always win the award for #fakenews.” Rob Williamson also referred to “fake news” in a debate and was booed and referred again to “fake news” on his recent postcard that was full of lies – or what could be considered as “false information.” When we printed the story last week about TC’s Front Porch and the towing by Bryan’s Towing Service I received several texts from Bryan saying that we were “fake news” without explanation. We called Bryan for the story and he answered some questions, hung up on our reporter three times and then blocked her number. When he texted “fake news” I let him know we tried to talk to him – and he refused. I told him we would be calling again. We did, and he didn’t answer. Apparently the definition for “fake news” in this area is factual news you don’t like. Which – isn’t fake news. When is it okay to say that a business is “fake” without backing it up with proof? Never.
Would a bank or a doctor’s office put up with a group of people calling them fake or false without defending themselves? No. They would send letters to cease and desist and damages would be assessed. ‘Crying wolf’ with misplaced allegations of “fake news” reduces trust in news that is not—its real impact is that it erodes trust in institutions. I will not stand by and laugh off those that are calling us “fake news.’ We hire professional journalists who know what they are doing. They would rather have their right hand cut off than to fabricate information, be deceptive, or distort news reports. We owe it to our readers to only present factual and truthful news – and that is what our news stories are. Our editorials are our opinions based on facts. They are not news reports. You may not agree with our opinion and that is okay with us. However, it doesn’t sit well with some and to them I would say, please find some emotional intelligence and learn how to agree to disagree. You don’t need to polarize yourself by only hanging around those that are 100% like-minded. First of all, that is isolationism and second, it is boring.
(If you have room, suggest a closing thought…
And speaking of isolationism, what’s up with blocking people on Facebook who dare to reply with factual counterpoints?)
Quote of the week:
“It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.” – Thomas Sowell (1930- ) American economist and social theorist