Who do you trust for your information?

Who do you trust for your information?

I’d like to consider myself a well informed person. Anyone reading this who knows me knows that I like to know about as many things as I can, and I’ll bore you to death talking about it.

Only a small part of what any of us knows is first hand knowledge. I know there is a nice sunset happening now because I can look out the window and there it is. The rest of what we know comes from other people in some way. This is a problem. There are lots of different messages out there about all kinds of different topics and many of them do not agree, especially regarding a debatable or hot topic. Who do you trust for your information?

So here are some of my methods. I would love to here how other people approach this.

Everyone is wrong sometimes – more accurately everyone is wrong a lot. When you are wrong, what are you going to do about it? This is one of the many reasons I don’t trust any of the big opinion guys or girls out there with their cable and radio shows. Very rarely, and only when forced to, will they acknowledge the many mistakes they make. Simultaneously, they constantly harp on the errors of others. Bill O’Reilly and Media Matters for America will forever tell us how constantly the other is wrong. I will accept that they are both right on that one point.

Motivation and methods – what is this person’s motivation for “informing” me, and what methods are they using. Getting paid or having something to gain by convincing me does not mean that what you are saying is not true, but it does make me less inclined to listen. Also, please do not try to scare me, and do not manipulate or omit facts.

Rooting for your team – is great for sports. I will root for the Eagles in a completely unbalanced and unfair way. Too many people treat the difficult questions of our world in the same, rooting for you team, way that I treat the Eagles. If someone is happy about a hurtful event because it will help their political team, if someone delights that one of their opponents is wounded or worse, that is someone to whom I do not want to listen.

Past results – are not a guarantee of future performance, but it makes sense to look at what someone has already said and done. What have the results been? So many of the loud voices in our society have a record, not only of being wrong, but of creating rather than combating fear, hatred, and conflict. I think we would do better to pay more attention to the character and past results of the voices we trust.

“Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers…”