In both TOK and global citizenship, a major focus in the pursuit of understanding is a critical analysis of sources — evaluating their overall reliability, the accuracy of particular reports, the perspective they bring to interpreting the information they present, and their insightfulness (or otherwise) in making sense of it all. In the process, we are often harshly (and justly) critical of media treatment of issues. We cannot ignore the limitations of some of the interpretation or the influence of media ownership and advertising on what gets reported and how.
There are moments, however, when it’s important to pause and appreciate a genuine drive to truth behind so many journalists and much media, and the value of competing perspectives for our overall grasp of the forces at play in world events. Good journalists and news analysts who have witnessed, reported, and explained world events for us are among my own greatest heroes of knowledge. I don’t know a lot about Daniel Schorr, who died yesterday at age 93. The obituary stories from Reuters (“Veteran Journalist Daniel Schorr Dies at Age 93”) and NPR (“Speaking Truth to Power”) give us a picture of a journalist worthy of admiration, and I pause a moment in my own life to say a mental thank you.
