Arguments in News: Truth Determines Who is David and Who is Goliath.

In this modern age, the battleship of news often follows the lights of its passing ships instead of the beacon of the lighthouse of truth and objectivity, allowing for the explosive cannon of opinions and vitriols to torpedo others’ reputation and career.

A successful journalist is a friend of his critics and overwhelmed as he may get with the new leadership for the country, doesn’t react much to character attacks and even threats because not his but other people’s life stories are in the spotlight. A journalist’s best weapon is the truth, hidden underneath layers of contexts – evidence, attributions, research and investigations.

My teacher once told me within very short minutes of our broadcasting scripts, we have already turned ourselves into agenda-setters, leaving out the tiniest bit of information or failing to contact this other person who owns a very unique perspective. As journalists, we do take control of our stories and reporting. Yet, do we also seek to control our audience however aggressively we hold accountable politicians’ and corporations’ authority, monopoly, and domination?

I’m an innately impatient person. It’s even indicated in my first name Quan as for quantity instead of quality. That’s why I’m not the best journalist to beard the lion in his den for the truth, but I can get all the other female ones in the den to ambush him for it – of course, with a debonair appearance as well. Does this mean I make things more complicated and dangerous?

Sometimes, I and the daredevil inside have ended up with more irrevocable predicaments or thrown myself behind from the spacecraft of first and exclusive news. And, I do struggle to walk on a straight and clean path toward truth without getting strayed and derailed by coercive forces and radical positions. Yet, if all truths are laid out on the surface of a press release, in the development of a tragedy or natural disaster, or through the horse mouths of those in power and those who can drown out other voices, our reporting ends in a travesty of our journalistic duty.

This stream of thoughts about the industry stems from the current feud between Anderson Cooper and Donald Trump Jr. The president's son retweeted a photo of Anderson Cooper, up to his waist in flood water during CNN's hurricane coverage while a cameraman stands in ankle-deep water. 

It’s a shame that CNN’s ratings are down 41%. What’s worse is there’s a simple solution that they refuse to accept. Stop Lying to try to make @realDonaldTrump look bad. https://t.co/O3XyWchsJh pic.twitter.com/BCUCxKnOvO

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 16, 2018

So early this week, Cooper fired back:


Context's what was left out in Trump's initial attack, so it doesn't take Cooper much to prevail in his argument. It's the battle between the agenda-setter and the context-explorer.

Cooper did admit to standing in water for a dramatic effect. As such, I have learned that war and disaster coverages are the highest rung in the journalistic ladder. In a time when ignorance is deadly, it's the journalist's most supreme and honorable duty to demonstrate and prepare people for the worst.

The truth is Cooper was covering Hurricane Ike, ripping through the Houston area of 10 years ago, rather than Florence. That's already enough for the tide to turn against the agenda-setter. In the video, Cooper did explain the motive behind his audacious and life-risking decision and ended this segment in a very somber note, commemorating the deceased photographer, who was unfortunately swirled into this echo-chamber (Twitter) of an annihilation of news values and integrity.

If there is something to take away from this blog, I shall encapsulate my thoughts through some of Anderson Cooper's inspiring statements:

"I tried not to argue with other TV anchors, and I usually let conspiracy theorists go unanswered... Now, I don't expect the president's son to ever admit he's wrong...or frankly anyone else who retweets the picture. But I at least thought that they and you should know the TRUTH."

Another quote that can sum this up is from the former first lady Michelle Obama and quite ironically put in this context given where Cooper was standing: