This week I learnt a lesson that I want to share with you. Life is a university by itself. It teaches you so many things. You cannot believe anything until you see it yourself. I belong to the media and it is not in my favour to tell you not to believe it. The media also could be bought or misled, either on purpose or innocently. If it is part of a certain party or government, then the bias is on purpose.

By the way, all professionals know that certain media belong to certain parties and groups. For instance, one outlet has a pro-Western leaning, another is known for being in favour of liberal opinion and a third is, for example, in favour of an Islamist viewpoint. Many times the media sources are misinformed. Often the media go for sensationalism and publish things that need more thorough investigation.

This week a guy came to our office and started shouting at the reception because he wanted to have a story published. The security connected transferred him to the editor who in return greeted him and told him that in order for a story to be published, especially if it is a political one, it needs to be researched. He was advised to take an appointment. When he received a negative answer, the guest started throwing threats and pretended he was talking to human rights organizations in Lebanon or Timbuktu. Or maybe he was really talking to some such organizations. He accused the newspaper of having a sectarian viewpoint for rejecting his story and threatened to contact human rights organizations and report the case. Funnily, he had the numbers of many such organizations with him. That is why I am telling you the media likes sensations.

People can be easily drawn into a fake story. When he was asked to leave and come back another day, he decided to do a sit-in in front of the newspaper’s office. At this point we involved the police. When the police came to the rescue, I didn’t believe that he wanted to lay charges against the newspaper. He said that around 50 of the security personnel tried to kill him with knives and batons. We, by the way, are not an army barracks and do not have 50 security members. We do not carry arms. Thank God, we have cameras in the office that recorded the whole fiasco from the moment he entered the premises.

I do not want to bore you with the story of this guy. All I want to say is that we should question the stories brought by the media. This incident made me think if we can believe what we are told. Maybe if he called human rights organizations, some would believe him that we are sectarian and we beat him up. This makes me wonder if all the news we receive can be believed. I wonder.

By Badrya Darwish
badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net
http://twitter.com/badryad