"On Being Accurate"

The first time I saw my own news station refer to the proposed mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site as the "Ground Zero mosque," I picked up the phone and talked to the executive producer. You see, we didn't just call it "The Ground Zero mosque" verbally. We labeled it that in the big, bright banner that was splashed across the screen multiple times during the story that evening.

"We're being inaccurate," I told the executive producer. "We're perpetuating the impression the mosque would be, like, right at the World Trade Center site and that's not true. We need to get rid of that banner. Call it "The Mosque Near Ground Zero" or "The 'So-Called' Ground Zero mosque," I suggested. He agreed to change the banner.

Because regardless of how you feel about this issue, you ought to at least be getting complete and accurate information about it.

So I was interested to read this column from the Online Journalism Review. Take a peek and see what you think. The guy who wrote it teaches journalism at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, although his photo makes him appear young enough to be my, um, son. Which may, of course, be as much a function of my age as his youthfulness. So we won't hold that against him. Much.