This morning, as I was consulting with my daughter (8 going on 14) about what she would wear to track, she announced that she had seen on the news that current temperatures were in the mid-40s. I didn’t think that could be right (high 50s is more like it, going up to the upper 70s), so she gave some ground. "You know, Daddy," she whispered, "the news lies." My response:
"Not about the weather, honey, not about the weather."
Too easy to fact-check.
Joe:
What do you mean the media doesn’t lie about the weather? Haven’t you heard of this thing called "global warming"? And how it caused Hurricane Katrina?
More reason why we should follow C.S. Lewis’s advice and only read the sports pages, since at least half the news there is true.
I think your daughter may have a point, Joe. Maybe not, except in Steve’s instances, exactly lies, yet really, the weather is only or at least as predictable as elections. Polls and weather maps may not exactly lie, but are either truly predictable as to make such predictions equal truth? I have had too many picnics rained upon, or have had school cancelled because we were (Surprise!) totally snowed in at dawn, to trust to meteorologists’ assurances.
You home school, I recall? In northeast Ohio, the weather is so uniformly awful from December to late April that we used to take our "weather days" when the weather was surprisingly good, back when we home schooled. Most memorable was a 75 degree day in one early February. The grass was brown and the trees were bare, but we went out and lazed in the sun, climbed trees, played ball or ran around the yard, (depending upon personal inclination) all day long. It was the most surprising thing, and very good.
Indeed, considering that his daughter is likely exposed to plenty of FoxNews, I would say that her perception was apt. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they even started fudging the weather, if it supports Hayward/Exxon’s increasingly struthious "What Global Warming?" position.
Craig,
Please don’t stereotype me. I almost never watch television, and certainly am not a devoted Fox News junkie. On the rare occasions when my daughter sees the news, it’s with her grandfather who voted for John Kerry in 2004.
She may be imbibing some grandparental cynicism about the news, but I’m not the source. In general, I try to insulate my kids from my political opinions and from the sources thereof.
Joe - I jumped to a hasty conclusion based on what is known about the viewership of FoxNews (e.g. conservatives gravitate towards it). That was wrong and I’m sorry. FoxNews and tv-watching aside, I am pretty skeptical, however, that a homeschooled 8-year-old (going on 14) could be effectively insulated from her parents’ political opinions and the "sources therof," particularly when the parents have such obviously strong and confident opinions.
Since I might possibly have your ear, let me put in a request for you to address the issues of "extraordinary rendition" of suspects/detainees/prisoners and their possible torture by Americans working for the U.S. government. Surely, this is something that conservative Christian values voters have a position on, or should.
Craig,
Would those be the opinions of the father or the mother? Or the grandparents? Or the people at church? Or the people in the home-school group? Or the people at home-school track, led by a liberal who is still surprised that there are a few conservatives he actually likes (and we, by the way, dearly love him, despite his political delusions)? Or at the Jewish Community Center where my kids are on swim team? Or the families of the best friends, who may not have been enthusiastic about Kerry, but didn’t vote for Bush? Or the professional actors with whom my son hung out when he was in Waiting for Godot? Or the college students with whom they interact from time to time?
Don’t assume that just because they’re home-schooled, they’re being raised in a homogeneous bubble.
God isn’t a copperhead, Craig.