On my drive to work this morning, I happened to tune my radio to WERU, a community radio station in our area. I typically regard it as one of the more mature, intelligent stations in the area. Unfortunately, Jim Hightower’s commentary this morning didn’t uphold that reputation. The opinion piece the station aired about Arizona’s new immigration law was, I’m sorry to say, a completely biased, one-sided look at the legislation. It angered me. I’m used to hearing drivel on television and the radio, but it’s almost always of an opposing viewpoint from my own. The piece this morning made no attempt to address the state of Arizona’s rationale behind the law, and I was ashamed that a station like WERU would air such garbage. (And now I know why I don’t listen to the station more often.)
I don’t agree with the Arizona law. I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of it are found unconstitutional in the future. But the piece this morning reminded me that a lot of the news we hear today is a second- or third-hand report; instead of interpreting the law and the world around us ourselves, we’re interpreting an interpretation. The quality of this information relay degrades significantly with every step.
Almost every issue in the world has two sides. Instead of taking the word of the radio program this morning, I read the Arizona immigration law for myself. It’s a short read, and it’s an important piece of legislation that will ultimately affect how we view immigration and civil liberties in America. It took about ten minutes for me to read, and even though I don’t agree with it, I felt better.
If you hear someone say a position on an issue is absolutely right or absolutely wrong, never accept their opinion at face value. Find out why it was done and decide for yourself what to think. The issues of the world aren’t black and white.