filed under: a picture is worth a thousand words

Slate recently published a little piece (link) about a Thomas Hoepker 9-11 picture that Frank Rich commented on... saying the "young people" in the photo weren't "necessarily callous."  The photo reads, when viewed one way, as a sign of the times.  New Yorkers sitting around under the sun, taking in the destruction in the background with almost a ho-hum where-shall-we-go-for-dinner attitude.  Except that Slate also found some of the people in the photo and allowed them to tell their story.  (link)

As it turns out, the people in the photo were talking about the events of the day in the way that you might have been, in the way that I was.  One of the subjects asks viewers to consider how a snapshot at a funeral can make mourners look as if they are attending a party.  The point, of course, is well taken.  How many times do we let those who wish to shape our opinions simply report the news to us without asking questions about how they are manipulating their stories?  See, for example, how CNN reporter Susan Roesgen chooses to present stories on the demonization of Bush and Obama (link).  One caricature is a "lookalike," the other is disrespectful.

With our current palavering pundit class, it is important always to ask what is behind the messages being produced.  Who is behind the information?  And don't simply take the image, or the interpretation of the image, at face value or without question.  Learn to see between the lines, even in your own thinking.  The next time you read something about global warming that is being espoused by some scientist or other, simply google that scientist's name. See what else he's been up to. Or listen to the way Rush Limbaugh dismisses those who call him with reasoned arguments against his opinions.  Or ask yourself why, if Mr. Obama has suddenly found the power to act on the economy without the Congress's involvement, he didn't find a way to do so before we headed into election season.

Learn to ask, that is, what is behind the picture.  In the thousand words that any picture represents, there are almost always two or three, or six or fifteen, different sides to the story.