Defensive

You may say that’s no big deal. It could even be considered as an advance – improving public scrutiny or what.

But I was horrified. For newspaper is not law court, events are not reported according to objective facts but presented as stories seasoned with emotion.

(Do you still remember that famous quote from one of our soap operas? “This is not the law court. We do not have to talk about evidence. My eyes are the evidence.” Yes, sometimes you could do the justice easier, but, just imagine you are an innocent suspect.)

And, to make things worse, the test is a self-conflicting paradox: When it is on the newspaper, they don’t really give you the chance of defending. As a result, we don’t actually ask Can you defend your action if it is reported on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow? but, rather, What should I do to avoid the remote possibility that it would come up to the front page of the newspaper?

Alas, welcome to the era of defensive medicine.