Two Sides to Every Story

There are always two sides to every story.  Sometimes both sides have truths and then the not so truths mixed in the stories.  And sometimes, there could be some malicious reasoning behind it all, while other times it is simply the perceptions of those telling the stories.

Today I saw a very relevant quote posted on FaceBook with credit given to Mark Twain.  (In fact, I clicked that I liked it and would be sharing it). It really seemed to hit home with me, especially with all of the bantering going on with the elections..."If you don't read the newspapers you are uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers you are misinformed."

This has some very real legitimate truth to it.  Let's start with the obvious of yes, you will be uninformed if you do not read the newspapers.  And in today's age, this could be a real hold in your hand paper or on line with all of the different sources and news agencies available, including turning on the TV and/or radio to have it told to you.  You need to do something to get your information.

Ahhh!  There is where the potential problems not only could, but do have a starting source.  You need to ask yourself if you are using critical reading/listening practices.  Who is responsible for the sources that you are reading/hearing?  Are the sources recent or at the very least updated?  Who would be the intended audience?  What does the writer have to gain? Who did the author interview to get the story?  Is it based on one side?  Remember?  There are two sides to every story.

All of these questions should be filtered through your own processes.before you make a judgment call after gathering your information.  And is there any reason to be quick to jump on a bandwagon until you feel that you have all of the facts?  Absolutely not.  Unless, you want to be a part of spreading incorrect information to those poor uninformed souls who never took the time to read.

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