What's the Difference Between a Burger Flipper and a Journalist?
By ParaTed2k
@ParaTed2k (22940)
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
November 5, 2007 11:06am CST
I'm not real picky about my hamburgers, but there are a few things I really can't stand on them. I love cheeseburgers, but it has to be CHEESE, not that processed crap we call "American" or "slices". Also, Mayo has no business on a burger. All it does is kill the flavor of everything else.
If I find one of the two deal breakers on my burger, I will usually take it back up to the counter. They almost always ablige me by taking the cheese or mayo infilitrated burger and giving me one without such contaminants.
Many of us are like that with our burgers, sandwiches and other foods. Even though we don't consider the kids who make and serve our burgers "professionals", we still insist on a certain level of competence.
Everyday we are served up a load of junk food in what we have laughingly come to refer to our "news". Almost every story we are served comes contaminated with journalistic "processed cheese" and "mayo". In other words, the news stories are riddled with false information, misquotes, paraphrasing in quotes, misinformation and downright lies.
What happens when we confront the people who serve up this trash? Do they take it back and serve us up an acceptable replacement? NO!
So, what's the difference between a Burger Flipper and a Journalist?
We expect professionalism from our burger flippers while we expect the "professional" journalist to get it wrong.
3 people like this
7 responses
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
5 Nov 07
Didn't you answer your own question? Burger flippers can be held accountable and made to do the job right whereas journalists can not.
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
5 Nov 07
Yes, I did answer my own question. The thing is Journalists CAN be held accountable, they just aren't. I don't know of very many professions that don't have ways of testing and training their members. Maintaining a high degree of competence protects the profession as a whole. The powers that be in professional journalism haven't done a very good job of maintaining any kind of standard at all.
I remember some journalists were saying that bloggers aren't reliable because no one ensures that what they right is accurate. From what I've seen, if there is someone who is supposed to be doing that for journalists... they are failing miserably.
1 person likes this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
5 Nov 07
I ignore the critism of bloggers. Because of bloggers the suppossed real journalists are finally trying a little harder
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
5 Nov 07
Really? I haven't seen them trying harder, just whining more.
1 person likes this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
6 Nov 07
...a biased press, is not a free press.. however! if ya repeat something enough times (and enough people repeat it) then it's true! Didn't you know that!?
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
6 Nov 07
I've heard it, but it was from the news, so I highly suspect it's accuracy. ;~D
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
5 Nov 07
I dont expect anything from journalist's these days. I used to trust the news but now it is so opinionated and blown out of proportion that it just makes me mad. So I dont listen to them. You can believe them anyway. Have you ever noticed how they have a way of convincing some people to change their minds and think like them? I refuse to be told how I feel about something that is happening in the world. I have my opinion and I am proud that I am not swayed by their words.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
6 Nov 07
The Journalists very rarely correct incorrect stories for one of two reasons.
The first is the issue of credibility. If the news is constantly being corrected then the news source will no longer be trusted to provide accurate reporting.
The other is that it is done deliberately as part of an agenda to shape public opinion about a particular issue.
This of course is done in the name of political correctness.
The last is actually more common than the first.
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
6 Nov 07
"The first is the issue of credibility. If the news is constantly being corrected then the news source will no longer be trusted to provide accurate reporting."
They don't have to worry about that anymore... they have none.
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
7 Nov 07
Well said.It is like a good burger is more important than a true report of a story.I don't know how it got this bad .I know it will get worst before it gets better.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
5 Nov 07
If you check out the history of newspapers they used to promote only one view, but you knew that up fornt. Now swith the "Professional" reporting the news then know how to report only the new they want you to hear and from their point of view.
Even the Photo Journalist are getting harder and harder to beleive. When a picture makes to to the front pages of major newspapers even after they know it is doctored because it better shows the story the photographer wants to tell. We know we can not beleive the reporters - can we beleive the pictures we see in the media?
