A few months back, Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign by the Obama Administration from her post as Rural Agriculture Director of the state of Georgia for her allegedly racist comments in a speech she gave (Full story HERE) that were taken out of context by a right-wing blogger. As we've been talking about in class, words are chosen very carefully in all parts of media be it textbooks, speeches, or even this blog. Everything flows together to make a bigger, even sometimes subliminal, message. Ms. Sherrod's point about previously being racist towards white farmers was to show how much she had grown in her position and as a person, not that she was still the same person with the same bias she had 20 years ago (Full video can be seen HERE). The person who cut down the video wanted to make a point about racism not just being whites against blacks, but also blacks agains whites.
I feel that when words are taken out of context, almost anything can be said. For example I could say in one part of my blog that "I love the new Black Keys album", and in another say "It is awful when people steal things", and anyone with MLA citation knowledge could cut up my words up into "I love...when people steal things"(Chlo Scho's Blog). I think it is really hard to say things that can't be construed incorrectly when taken out of context, so does that put the burden of keeping the whole truth to a reporter or a blogger? Bias is bias and I believe no matter where you get your information, each reporter has control over what parts of the full story you get and they can omit the biggest truths.
Chloe, good point. I think it is up to the reporter or blogger to tell the truth. And they can lie too. If you are selective and take things out of context, its your fault, and that can be misinterpreted. However, it is up to the reader to see through the poor writing. As a writer, the link should be on the post as to where the quote was taken from, and the reader can go there and read the article for themselves. This will help us become more discerning audiences and keep us from believing exaggerations and words bent to the writer's view point.
ReplyDelete