Justice

“Let us keep our mouths shut and our pens dry until we know all the facts.”

That was A.J. Carlson’s comment and I confess that I am not sure who he is (Google search suggests this quote may come from a physiologist). I do think it is a worthy bannerhead for journalists though. I was thumbing through my book of virtuous quotes and this one was in the Justice section, interestingly enough. Frequently we think of justice in the legal sense or as part of a fairness equation but there is the other type of justice, as in “doing justice to a person”, doing the right thing.

I thought it would be a good quote to use this morning so that I wouldn’t continue on a prissy line of thought. A couple of days ago the media started feeding us a story about Will and Jada Smith “Another Hollywood Couple Bites the Dust” which turns out to be untrue. I’ve written before about gossip media and the peculiar things we humans seem to be interested in. How can we evolve into civilized and better human beings when we feed on scandal and disgrace? Have you seen the little monkey statuettes “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” and sometimes the last one ‘do no evil”? The statuettes may look cute and funny but when you study them and think on them there is really meaning in the simple picture. Before we open our mouth we should count to ten and as we do think about the hurt we may cause another human being before we repeat some gossip. If we counted to ten we could very easily change our minds and stop ourselves in time.

Years ago I worked for a lawyer who was very involved in politics. During the heat of an election he became very incensed about a particular article published in the Calgary Herald and he fired off a letter. As I typed away I came across the term “yellow journalism” which was unknown to me. I asked Darrel what it meant and the answer was succinct “sensationalism”. Then he went on to say that it is little or no well researched article, seeking only sensational headlines to sell newspapers. Ah. That was back in 1979 and thirty years later “legitimate” newspapers have deteriorated even further. There is a lot of gossip in newspapers and even if the stories are true are they edifying the public? Do we need to know what politician is sleeping with his housekeeper? (which reminds me, I was watching a One Life to Live episode where David and Dorian had a hilarious conversation about her being a senator and him spending time with the housekeeper; they are a great humorous couple! I’m going to miss this show,) Is it important? Really?

It is one thing to discuss a person personally known to you and who is irritating the life out of you; then it is fair enough if you need to talk to someone to vent your feelings. We are human and things come out which may not be nice. But sensational gossiping simply for the sake of conversation is wrong and it is hurtful not only to the person being gossiped about but to yourself. Every time you indulge in mean gossip you are damaging your grace. Think about that next time you feel tempted to discuss Jane Doe’s bad hairdo.