I was talking to my father tonight about the issues in Parliament. I read the newspapers and I listen to the news and I also read the news online. Yet, when I see something written, I usually take it with a pinch of salt if I cannot clarify it. If I can clarify it, I will try to do so. What I don't do is take it as a fact just because it's in the news. Now why shouldn't we trust the news totally, you may wonder?
For one, I lived in the US for 3 years. I have attended some Mass Communication classes and my roommate was taking Journalism. Between the two of us, we know not to fully trust the news. A lot of the news we hear are hyped up to create a frenzy of thoughts and opinions. Besides, TV stations want the ratings. Newspapers want to be sold. Would they be able to achieve this if they merely told the boring truth? Look at what happened after the 9/11 incident.
With this cynicism, I began to ask my father about all the bits of news that make Parliamentarians look like fools who only know how to play around and debate on trivial matters. My father had two things to say about it. One, was that, for everyday Parliamentary news report, most newspapers or TV stations would send the junior journalists. The senior journalists are sent only when they media expects something big to happen. Now, these junior journalists don't always understand what's going on. So, what they don't understand, they don't write it down. And since they understand the jokes and trivial arguments (and it is an excitement compared to the general slowness of the law-making process), those are the parts that reach our attention.
Two, the law-making process is very slow and very dull. It takes a lot to sit there in the Hall everyday listening to some people ramble on and on and on. Members of Parliament are also human beings. They can get bored listening to their own voices too. So sometimes, as my father puts it, they will ramble on for an hour or two and then, just to break the monotony, they crack a joke. Unfortunately for them, it's the joke that made the news and not the serious debate that went on just a few minutes before.
Generally, politicians do their jobs the best way they can. They are a few who are there just for the glory and the fortune of being there. There are others who bend over backwards to help their constituents and others. And there are some who boast about doing a lot but they don't actually do much more than sit in the Hall and watch.
As my father always says, if you want to know how much actually goes on in Parliament, read the Hansard, not the news.
For one, I lived in the US for 3 years. I have attended some Mass Communication classes and my roommate was taking Journalism. Between the two of us, we know not to fully trust the news. A lot of the news we hear are hyped up to create a frenzy of thoughts and opinions. Besides, TV stations want the ratings. Newspapers want to be sold. Would they be able to achieve this if they merely told the boring truth? Look at what happened after the 9/11 incident.
With this cynicism, I began to ask my father about all the bits of news that make Parliamentarians look like fools who only know how to play around and debate on trivial matters. My father had two things to say about it. One, was that, for everyday Parliamentary news report, most newspapers or TV stations would send the junior journalists. The senior journalists are sent only when they media expects something big to happen. Now, these junior journalists don't always understand what's going on. So, what they don't understand, they don't write it down. And since they understand the jokes and trivial arguments (and it is an excitement compared to the general slowness of the law-making process), those are the parts that reach our attention.
Two, the law-making process is very slow and very dull. It takes a lot to sit there in the Hall everyday listening to some people ramble on and on and on. Members of Parliament are also human beings. They can get bored listening to their own voices too. So sometimes, as my father puts it, they will ramble on for an hour or two and then, just to break the monotony, they crack a joke. Unfortunately for them, it's the joke that made the news and not the serious debate that went on just a few minutes before.
Generally, politicians do their jobs the best way they can. They are a few who are there just for the glory and the fortune of being there. There are others who bend over backwards to help their constituents and others. And there are some who boast about doing a lot but they don't actually do much more than sit in the Hall and watch.
As my father always says, if you want to know how much actually goes on in Parliament, read the Hansard, not the news.
1:51 am |
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