Today in class we watched a movie called State of Play in which journalism was portrayed within a fictional lens. In this movie a journalist has a old college roommate who has become entwined in a political scandal. The politician had been having an affair, and his redheaded lover had either been killed, or committed suicide in a subway station. In this movie journalism was taken very lightly and was drenched with the sarcasm of the actor who played the main journalist. The truth in this movie was seen in a very interesting way. The politician had told the truth to only a few people and was continually beaten down with lies from the press that made assumptions about his lover's death. Therefore from this we can assume that truth is very precious. Its fragility should be handled with caution, and approached with gentility. Yet although it is fragile it is the most dangerous weapon of all time.
The Weapon of Truth
Truth can break peoples hearts, and leave recipients who have received honest information with nightmares of horror and fear. In a documentary we watched there was a photojournalist who arrived at a crime scene ready to take pictures of whatever he saw. When he arrived what he experienced was the raw, dangerous truth of the situation. A man had killed an elderly woman and taken his pregnant wife and two daughters hostage inside the house. The first person to come out after they had cleaned up the elderly woman's body that was laying outside the house was one of the man's daughters. She was in the single digits of ages and was screaming 'Dont hurt my daddy!' even though he had mutilated her face and arms with a knife that the police expected him to have. The photojournalist saw this little girl, the fear in her eyes, and the scars from her raging father upon her skin and decided not to take a picture. The truth was too much to bear. The truth was frightening and not only did the little girl leave with emotional scars, but so did the police men and photojournalist.
The HEART
In conclusion, truth is a double edged sword. Depending on the situations journalists should be cautious in what they put out into the hands of the people. Journalists should be warriors for the heart, explaining the truth in a way that shows the deep recesses of humanity in a precious and informative way. Especially Christian journalists should be concerned for the heart, because that is the central piece of a person that God looks at.
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