The Press & the Pursuit of Truth

Similarly, Africans who are “progressive” are those who adopt Western dress and enthusiastically introduce cash crops to their people; and a country is “developing” when it begins to computerize its
commercial and government operations. But while many journalists and leaders in the West believe that “progress” and “development” are changes in the direction of the way they do things, these may be in
opposition to traditional African ways. For the African who wears a suit, shirt and tie may find that he is uncomfortable in a tropical climate and non-air-conditioned room. If he returns to wearing his loose, flowing robe, is he less “progressive” or more practical? Is an African leader more development oriented, and so on the right track, if he decides to build a clinic or a school, rather than computerize record keeping in the Ministry of Education? In other words, one society’s idea of validity and Truth should not be transferred to its study of events in another. Rather, events should be examined on their own terms, for what is true in one instance may be false and inappropriate in another.
 
Concerning the concept of press freedom which is a necessary tool if we are to get at Truth as we work, this varies from country to country. In the U.S. and Britain there are less restraints than in France, and as a result this can and does lead to what may be regarded as high levels of irresponsible reporting and coverage of public figures, as we have seen in the U.S. since the beginning of the Clinton presidency, and the abysmal low levels the British media has sunk to in the saga of Diana, Princess of Wales. But then one of the philosophical assumptions of the media, particularly in the West, is that news is about the unusual, the bizarre and the weird. It should also focus on conflicts and the negative aspects of human existence on this planet. However, is this the entire Truth? Are these qualities more important than the positive element in news?
 
Defining the Press as an instrument for the pursuit of the Truth, either now or in the 21st` Century, therefore cannot be an easy task. I will try to define the press, why it is a vehicle to convey the Truth
and the consequences of the workings of the Truth. I will then endeavour to define the Truth Itself, and show that It really exists, despite many opinions to the contrary. I will also try to show that from the effects of the Truth has life on earth as elsewhere emerged and is maintained, that these effects or influences pervade everything, be it the invisible atom, a blade of grass, bubble of water, the solar
system, the gigantic constellations of the celestial bodies or man himself.
 
It will also be argued that, since no-one has come into being of his own accord, and since man did not make the earth or the world, and since everything predated his earthly existence and consciousness, his opinion on anything can only be an assumption, hence the ever-recurring relativity, although, sometimes, this may accord with the Truth. The inviolable, indivisible Truth, ladies and gentlemen, can only be unraveled, where it is not revealed, from living experiences, that is experiences which touch the spirit of man, from the prick of conscience and from the lessons we draw from the language which Nature speaks to us. For Nature is not man-made, being that which lie outside the realm of his work Nature is the Work of God.