I must have skipped class when they taught aspiring writers in college how to read the minds of the folks they write about.
Or maybe I was sleeping off a wicked hangover after some animal house style frat party.
But doggone it, it sure would have been useful to learn what so many other reporters seem to know how to do, that is to divine the motives of public figures out of thin air.
It makes me feel awful left out that I don’t have the ESP that allows other scribes to ascertain why public figures do what they do without any evidence or statements to back up their conclusions.
How convenient it must be to just sit at one’s computer and know without asking why Candidate X said such and such, and why Candidate Y did something entirely different.
What we’re talking about here is the continual practice of ascribing motive to actions, without any confirmation from the people reported on or quotes from other observers as to why they might be doing it.
Look for sentences like this:
“President X, hoping to draw attention away from the mounting scandal over his failure to return the 27 hunting dogs given him by a corporate lobbyist to influence him not to sign the new leash law sent to him by Congress, today called a press conference to announce that all Americans would receive a free month’s supply of dog biscuits for their own dogs.“
Now just how would this imaginary writer know why President X called the news conference? Did the Prez call him up and tell him it was all a diversion to get him out of the hunting dog scandal?
I bloody well think not.
I mean when I want to divert attention from any of my scandals, I don’t tell a living soul what I’m up to, and neither does President X, you can bet your life savings on it.
And, gee maybe President X truly thought it was time all Americans had some free dog biscuits, right?
The practice of attributing motive without proof is so prevalent that it goes unnoticed most of the time, and the fact is, reasonable people might agree that the motives of figures in the news are often transparent.
But unless there is some substantiation, those sentences belong on the opinion and commentary pages.
Just remember to keep an eye out for those tell-tale commas at the beginning of stories, followed by statements of why people are doing what they are doing.
That is unless you made it to that mind reading class in college I must have slept through.
Ken Odor
