People relating facts

I read with great interest Lino Spiteri's article on Ethics, Spin And The Media (May 11).

I think that of all media, political party media are the most innocuous. They are watched and read by fellow travellers who get what they expect. Party media are expected to "spin"; otherwise why should they be called party media? Their agenda is crystal clear and one expects that they follow it. Was it Marx who said that "truth is whatever serves the revolution"?

Mr Spiteri says that facts are sacred. I believe, however, that there are no facts out there. There are only people relating facts. Facts become facts only when they are related by somebody, and it is in the nature of things that different people relate "facts" differently. The way people relate facts has to do with their agenda. Everyone has an agenda, although most are not aware of it. It has to do with one's background, with one's beliefs (religious, political or what have you), with one's level of education, with one's job, with how one relates facts, with what one adds or leaves out, with what comparison one makes with other "facts" and with what conclusions one draws from them.

Journalists have to please their employers or their financial backers. It is to them that they are responsible; surely not to readers or listeners. All they want from these is to be believed. It is only when journalists do not disclose their agendas, and continue to pose as "independents" and as know-alls, that they become a menace. They are like the actor dressed as a doctor in the Italian TV advert for a particular brand of toothpaste. One is supposed to believe that he is a doctor; and we all know that we should follow doctor's advice. One can do little about it except read between the lines and take it all with a largish pinch of salt.

I do not see how ethics come into it at all. If a journalist libels anybody there is the remedy of the law. Otherwise there can be no limit to their "truth" according to their agenda. If ethics come into it at all it should be in the manner of a declaration (this would not be necessary for the political media) made by anyone who writes or broadcasts and printed or read before each article or broadcast stating the journalist's religious and political beliefs (or lack of either), and anything else that might give an indication of his agenda. This would be a great advantage to readers and listeners because they would know, at a glance, what to read or listen to and what to leave out.