Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI180413B
|
00:05 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:07 Before the break, 00:08 we were both singing a strong song 00:10 about the need of investigative journalism 00:15 and a free press. 00:17 And it's role not just in civil liberties generally, 00:19 but the greatest liberty, religious freedom. 00:22 Well, you know, 00:23 it's not really an accident of history, Lincoln, 00:25 that we have a bundle of rights in the First Amendment. 00:29 We have no establishment of religion, 00:31 free exercise of religion, free speech, free press, 00:35 and the right of people to petition 00:37 for redress of grievances, and assembly. 00:41 All of these rights are bundled together 00:43 in one sentence, in one amendment. 00:47 And if you think about it, what are we doing here? 00:49 You know, we're exercising both religious freedom, free speech, 00:54 free press, all in one fell swoop 00:56 by recording this program. 00:57 You really can't divide these liberties up too much 01:01 and it's been said 01:02 even by one of our Liberty dinner speakers 01:05 that religious liberty is pretty much the litmus test 01:07 for all the civil liberties. 01:08 It is, absolutely. 01:09 But you can turn it around a little bit. 01:11 If you don't have freedom of the press, 01:12 you're not likely to have freedom of religion. 01:14 Well, that's true too. 01:16 So they exist together 01:17 and even as you were reiterating them, 01:20 you know, it played into my burden 01:22 that we need to understand the stream of history. 01:24 They get back to the Magna Carta. 01:26 Well, and look, 01:28 I think we Americans are rather complacent 01:32 about the state of our liberties 01:35 and they can be lost very quickly. 01:38 You know, Anthony Lewis wrote the definitive book 01:41 "Freedom for the Speech We Hate." 01:43 And when you look at the history 01:44 of free speech in this country, 01:47 free speech has not been very well protected. 01:51 At worse, I'd like to add sum, you can lose it 01:53 and not know you've lost it. 01:55 There's a poem that I love and just a line 01:57 just popped in my mind by Dylan Thomas. 02:01 And he says, at the end he says, 02:02 "Though I sang in my chains like the sea." 02:05 You know, we can sing about from see the shine, 02:07 shining city of the great liberties. 02:09 But maybe to an onlooker in another country 02:11 it's not such... 02:12 I mean I'm not saying it so, 02:14 but it could be where it's not such a free country anymore. 02:16 Well, look that's, you know, my quick listing. 02:19 In America we're only free as long as we're relevant. 02:22 You know, as long as the powers that be don't care about, 02:25 you know, what you're doing, and what you're saying, yeah, 02:27 you can, you're free to say whatever you want. 02:29 But if you become a threat, 02:31 if you become sufficiently influential 02:33 that you're taken seriously, watch out, 02:36 you know, somebody is going to try to take you down. 02:38 Yeah. 02:39 And that may not be because 02:41 there's anything structurally changed, 02:44 but it's the dynamic of forces 02:47 that using the existing system can restrict you, 02:49 it's always been so, and money, and large organizations 02:54 have long trod on individual freedoms. 02:56 And that's part of the reason we're pushing back. 02:58 You know, one of the things that I say about bias 03:01 in the press, you know. 03:03 And like you I read widely. 03:06 Well, first of all bias is not a bad thing. 03:10 The role of the press is to criticize 03:13 the existing powers that be. 03:16 The press is not doing its job, if it's just a rubber stamp 03:19 and going rah-rah to who is ever in power. 03:22 It has to be finding fault, that's its job, 03:26 that's what we need it to do. 03:28 If you're looking for bias, 03:31 look at why the stories being told. 03:35 Not all of the story is full of false facts 03:38 or it's fake news. 03:39 No, the story is likely, 03:41 you know, in the responsible journalism, 03:43 they have very good fact checkers, 03:45 and editorial policies, and what have you, 03:48 and they're very careful. 03:51 You know, the major New York Times Post 03:53 and, you know, the major magazines and all 03:56 are very good at making sure 03:58 that they get their facts straight. 03:59 The question is 04:01 why are they telling this story? 04:03 Why did they choose this story rather than a different story? 04:06 That's where you'll see elements of bias coming. 04:09 But a lot of what is happening now 04:12 is not just bias, 04:13 it's almost not fake in the sense, 04:17 but it's a narrative 04:18 that's based on some lies basically. 04:24 There are stories that's made up, made up. 04:27 Not all the facts, but the premises are made up, 04:30 premise and then convenient facts 04:33 have been accumulated to tell it. 04:36 And I... 04:38 Since we spoke about it before, Fox will do that. 04:40 And I watch Fox, I have no burden against them, 04:43 to me it's entertainment. 04:45 It tells me what other groups are saying, 04:47 but I've been watching 04:48 on some of the recent developments 04:50 that it's particularly was on the discussion groups. 04:53 I see them discuss, 04:55 and then I turn on another one of any other channels. 04:59 And it's like they're talking about the same real events 05:02 that I know half a bit. 05:04 But this gets us to our core concept. 05:06 And perhaps it's just hit me, 05:08 perhaps a big problem in the US is confusing news 05:10 with entertainment. 05:12 Well, we want to be titillated not informed. 05:15 But this is a problem, it goes back decades where, 05:19 you know, in order for television news 05:21 for example to survive, 05:23 it has to get the ratings and it's all about the ratings. 05:26 And to get the ratings, you have to entertain. 05:29 So what entertains, you know, the latest, 05:32 you know, car crash or, you know, some disaster. 05:36 And so the thing, 05:37 but it's a matter of public record 05:40 that Donald Trump received 05:43 something like a billion dollars worth 05:45 of free media coverage during the election campaign. 05:49 That unquestionably was a huge contribution 05:54 to his political success. 05:56 Now why did he get all that press coverage 05:58 because he was entertaining. 06:00 He was interesting. 06:01 Okay, he was more entertaining 06:03 than, you know, George Bush, or Marco Rubio, 06:06 or you know any one of a number of other people 06:09 who, you know, arguably 06:11 were more experienced politically 06:13 and may have been better qualified. 06:14 You know, but the focus is on... 06:16 You can throw in arguably. 06:18 Well, I mean, it's just the facts. 06:22 Look I'm not trying... 06:24 Doesn't mean the president was incompetent or is, 06:27 that's irrelevant, but he was not a politician. 06:29 Right. He was not a politician. 06:31 And they were experienced. 06:32 So, you know, I think the media is undergoing 06:36 some self-criticism certainly. 06:39 But it brings us back to our core question of, 06:45 you know, how do we understand truth 06:48 in a post modern age 06:49 when everything that goes on around us, 06:52 we're, you know, we're having a hard time 06:55 getting to the actual facts because of the spin. 06:58 And we're not even willing most of us to listen to facts 07:03 that conflict with our preconceived ideas. 07:05 And that's a real problem. 07:08 Yes. 07:09 But I was about to say 07:10 what I do and I hope other people do. 07:12 When I listen to anything, that's not just news 07:14 or read a book, I'm constantly... 07:16 I read facts and figures, I run it past the ones 07:19 that I already know that I verify them in my mind. 07:21 I'm fact checking. 07:22 Did you do that when you read? 07:24 Well. 07:25 But if you don't have the background knowledge 07:27 or have never tried to acquire it, 07:30 how would someone today know up from down. 07:34 And it does struck me, the Bible over and over again 07:38 says that, "The very elect will be deceived 07:40 at the end of time." 07:41 And this has to be part of this dynamic. 07:44 You can't believe your eyes. 07:46 And, of course, videos can be manipulated, not just words, 07:50 you know, and there's some joke things 07:53 that I've seen online 07:54 where they'll have public figures 07:55 saying something grotesque, 07:57 and you can micro edit video and sound of them. 08:00 So quite literally most people know now, 08:04 what you see isn't what you get. 08:05 It can be manipulated in gross ways, not routinely, 08:11 but there's always that possibility. 08:12 And without knowledge to compare 08:14 to what they have been, what they're saying. 08:16 I think people are not critical thinkers 08:19 as in the large, 08:20 of course, there's wonderful exceptions. 08:22 But overall, modern society 08:24 and in particularly the United States 08:26 is one of the most modern countries 08:28 is in a bad situation. 08:30 I do a mini evangelistic series based on prophecy. 08:34 And at the beginning, 08:35 one of my premises is to tell people 08:39 the problem is not that you're skeptical, 08:41 it's that you're not skeptical enough, 08:44 because as you just quoted from Jesus, 08:48 "At the end of time, even the very elect 08:51 will be subject to deception." 08:53 I think one of the elements 08:54 that is very dangerous for us as Christians, 08:57 we're very law and order oriented. 09:01 So for example, there's a lot of current controversy 09:04 over American immigration policies. 09:06 I'm not going to get into the substance of it, 09:08 but what I see from conservative Christians 09:12 is a very one sided approach 09:17 to the issue, it's law. 09:19 You know, if this is what the law is 09:22 and either you're on the right side of it 09:24 and there's so many dimensions. 09:25 And it seems to me, 09:27 you can still respect the government as the law giver 09:30 and it's chosen to have this law 09:33 for whatever reason. 09:34 But we can morally object to how it's applied 09:39 if people are being mistreated in the name of that law, 09:43 we object to the mistreatment, 09:44 that's not ever to be acceptable to a Christian. 09:47 Well, and there's a lot, 09:48 certainly there's a lot of dimensions 09:49 to the whole immigration issue. 09:51 Why are people fleeing? 09:52 What are the social issues? 09:53 What's the geopolitical? 09:55 What is the United States influence been 09:56 in Mexico and Central America? 09:58 What about, you know, the drug problem, 10:00 this a push and pull? 10:02 You know, it's American demand that creates... 10:04 To create facts. 10:05 The fact that we need another program. 10:07 The facts are, more people are leaving 10:09 than are coming in at the moment. 10:10 Yes. Well, there's that too. 10:13 But freedom of the press 10:14 is so central to religious freedom. 10:17 And frankly, I fear for our ability to really see 10:22 what is truth and to grasp reality. 10:28 Standing before Governor Pilate, 10:31 Jesus calmly and in a dignified way, 10:33 in spite of the blood and the gore 10:36 dripping down His forehead said, 10:39 "I'm the Way, the Life, and the Truth." 10:42 And Pilate said, "What is truth?" 10:46 Most people that read that just think of it 10:47 as a narrative. 10:49 But he was asking a deeply philosophical question. 10:53 And I believe in many ways, in our modern world 10:55 we're seeing the demise of truth 10:58 or at least an understanding of it. 11:01 Is the media telling us the truth? 11:03 Can we find the truth? 11:04 Would we know it if we found it? 11:07 I think unless one realizes that God's way 11:10 is the only way to truth that He is indeed 11:13 the epitome of truth, and we seek Him, 11:16 and like Solomon an understanding of his way, 11:19 and the ability to define between truth and error, 11:23 light and dark, we'll be lost. 11:26 We will go into a moral and intellectual darkness. 11:31 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2018-12-06