This is a variation of a column that I have been writing once a year for decades. I write it to remind readers that skepticism has been a driving factor in my over 40 years in journalism, including small and large city dailies, the Associated Press, Congressional Quarterly, Energy Daily, Electricity Daily, POWER magazine, and, most recently The Quad Report.
I am also writing today because skepticism is under attack, from a variety of directions. Skepticism about global warming claims is viewed as criminal apostasy in some corners, among people I normally would expect would value it. Believers in conspiracy theories and in the endless lies of Donald Trump view skeptics as enemies who are clearly part of the conspiracies.
The term “fake news” gets carelessly thrown around by anyone who dislikes journalistic work that questions their revealed truth. CUNY’s Lloyd Sealy Library has a fine essay on fake news, including a copy of a guide from the university’s graduate school of journalism, Fact Checking, Verification & Fake News.
So the source for this essay is a post card I have had pinned to my overcrowded bulletin board for many years, done as a promotion for journalist Steven Brill’s late, lamented media watchdog magazine Brill’s Content.
“Skepticism is a weapon. It deflects spin, propaganda, P.R., B.S., press agents, publicity seekers, hearsay, unnamed sources, and anyone with a hidden agenda.
“Skepticism is that little voice that tells you that you’ll never be a millionaire with little or no money down.
“Skepticism is that sneaking suspicion that all aspirin are alike.
“Skepticism is a quality shared by truth seekers, freethinkers and realists.
“Skepticism demands that proof and facts be unsanitized, uncensored and unembellished.
“Skepticism makes the world accountable.
“Skepticism is a virtue.”
Enough said.
–Kennedy Maize
To subscribe to The Quad Report – it’s FREE – just click on the email address above and put “subscribe” in the subject box.
To comment, use the email address