Stephen H Baum Leadership

Headlines in the WSJ and NYT about Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech reminded me how important it is to take information from any source with a critical eye. 

NYT: On Center Stage, Palin Electrifies Convention. 

WSJ: Focus Turns to Palin Record

Were they witness to the same speech? No matter your political views, when you read a newspaper (or an internet article or blog post) or watch a tv commentator, you have to ask: What is their agenda? What is their bias? 

And when you listen to the candidates themselves describe problems or the world as they would like to see it, you have to ask: Do their words match the facts or their past deeds?  Do their words today match their words somewhere else they have been recently? 

Critical listening and critical thinking are crucial skills that develop only with practice. 

I was taught that Alexis deTocqueville wrote in 1835: “Democracy depends on an educated public” And Thomas Jefferson had already said:  “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” A large segment of our population is poorly educated. And our media are often far from objective and more engaged in “gotcha” than in pursuit of a thoughtful, insightful back story. 

The real deficits we face in our system are in public education and the absence of  a trustworthy and public service driven Fourth Estate.  That’s just my view.