Larry Mendte Commentary: Wuhan

There’s a saying in journalism that “if your mother says she loves you, check it out.”  That has morphed over the years to also be “if your mother says she loves you, get a second source.”

The point of either quote is that journalists should be skeptical and very careful in trafficking “true facts.”

And before we get to this Commentary by Larry Mendte, you might be interested to know that the quote is widely attributed to an editor in Chicago, Edward H. Eulenberg, who adamantly told a reporter in 1999, “What I said was, ‘If your mother tells you she loves you, kick her smartly in the shins and make her prove it.’ ”   People who knew Eulenberg says THAT quote sounds much more like the crusty newsman they knew.

The point of all this is that journalism finds itself less trusted than Congress.  That’s pretty bad.  And because of that, RoseBud was conceived.  We don’t always get it right, human error plays a role in carrying truth, but we are never too big to admit our wrongs, and we don’t think it’s our role to tell people how to think.  We have cable talk news channels, both left and right, for that.  But we are dismayed at the liberties reporters give themselves to steer the facts to fit their own beliefs.   And it happens enough at the New York Times and Washington Post to have greatly chipped away at the high regards America once held for them at the height of Watergate.  

Larry Mendte takes a look at the coronavirus that came to us from elsewhere, likely China, and why it’s been so frustrating to get to what you and we at RoseBud simply call “the truth.”

After you listen to his analysis and comments, we invite you to reach out and let Larry know if you agree or disagree with him @mendte.  And as always, we appreciate you being here and supporting RoseBud.