Posted: Friday, 24 August 2007 9:42AM
Tell The Truth
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, August 24, 2007
Nowhere in America does news break faster and more furiously than in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
From one polluted sea to another rotten shore, bad news strikes with the quickness of a cobra.
Good news arrives as well.
But the wild news helps make us who we are – a tribe that’s unique to America.
No place has a greater concentration of potent press material than here.
What also distinguishes us is that we read it, write it, listen to it, and share the news with neighbors – never getting enough news.
Political news is the talk of the town. And around here, everything is political.
Northeastern Pennsylvania is one of the greatest news outlets in the land.
Some people don’t like our addiction. Some people desire silence. We’re supposed to hold our hats in our hands and cast our gaze downward in a humble act of submission. The enemies of free expression accuse us of spreading negativity. We don’t have the proper community spirit, they say. We’re bad for business.
We might be bad for some businesses, but we’re very good for the news business.
We’re even better for the people’s business.
Ultimately, the people’s business matters more than any dull executive board of the Chamber of Commerce. The people’s business matters more than all the money in all the banks in the world. The people’s business matters more than the market.
As long as we talk about the events that shape our lives for better or worse, as we shine the bright lights of scrutiny in the direction of those smoke-filed rooms where decisions are made in secret, we’re evolving and getting better as a community.
Crooked cops, rotten judges, and greedy elected public officials give us strength.
Without a diagnosis, we’ll never know how to treat the disease. We know we’re sick and the news is the medicine that can help us heal.
The more news that breaks the better I like it.
The more we talk and read and dig into public issues, the better off we’ll all be.
Say what you will about the provincialism of the coal fields, we’re not easy to fool.
Our skepticism and gut instincts form a priceless attribute that helps us grow and heal and mature. Our resolve to find the truth matters more than all the economic development projects and all the corporate executives who lack a similar interest. Seeking truth makes us different from those who want to hide the truth.
Are we better than this powerful inner circle?
I dare say that we are.
Indeed, the truth will set us free.
That’s where WILK News Radio comes in.
More and more we strive to put the facts on the table and talk about them. More and more you call to add your voice to the community conversation that is non-existent in most regions of America.
Telling the truth, even when it hurts, is the mark of a great person. A willingness to face the truth marks the greatest leaders. Decent, common people demand the truth from themselves and from others.
Society benefits from the truth.
Hiding the truth is a mark of a failed community.
But what exactly is the truth and how will we know it when we see it?
I’m not exactly sure so I’ll just keep looking. I believe I know truth when I see it.
The pursuit of truth is a daunting adventure. But it’s worth the trip, no matter what misfortune befalls the seeker in the process.
Without truth and those willing to look for truth, society implodes, collapsing inward amid the rubble of lies, deceit, disloyalty and fear. And to live in fear is to live in isolation, waiting for the next attack that one day will finally silence you forever.
Live free.
Tell the truth.
Talk about the news.
Tune to “Corbett” today at 3, to talk about those little truths that mean so much, those local news events that one way or another shape the world around us.
Keep talking.
Keep listening.
To do otherwise cheapens the grand quest of our lives.
That grand quest is called freedom.
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