A recently elected Republican from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, Mark Green, claimed that his previous statement about autism being linked to preservatives in vaccines was “misconstrued”. Other politicians, celebrities or business leaders have often made seemingly controversial statements, only to later retract their comments by stating that they had “misspoke”. Others have claimed that they were “misinformed” by some source and thus misstated their views based on faulty or wrong information.
Perhaps what we are seeing in this day and age is partly the result of new technologies and instant communication. Much information is at our finger tips and the ability to instantly share our views is readily available through the immediacy of social media. The old assertion that one should think before one speaks may have gone the way of the dodo bird. Yes, we are being inundated daily with a lot of misinformation from a variety of sources, including social and on-line media. However, this is no excuse for each of us not to first verify the legitimacy of those sources and the reliability of the information. Perhaps from time to time we need first to take a step back instead of offering uninformed opinions or view points.
The fact is that one of the worst culprits for misinforming the public is President Trump, whose tweets and public addresses frequently include erroneous facts and unsubstantiated view points. What’s worst, the President has never admitted to have misspoken or misinformed his audience. Other times, he simply claims that he was “misunderstood”. Unfortunately, his followers appear to take his every statement as being the gospel.
All that I ask is that our leaders and representatives — be they in industry, the arts or government — think before they talk or make assertions on social media. Furthermore, if asked for their views on any matter, there is nothing wrong with merely stating that they have nothing to say at that time or they need to further investigate the matter. Hopefully, this will avoid future follow-up retractions by declaring that they misspoke or their words were misconstrued.
FROLITICKS 