with Tom Smith

NATIONAL and local newspapers see the world through very different eyes.

Last week one day's news in a national paper covered items like the dangers of Genetically Modified food, the death penalty for children, the Kosovo crisis, the murder of Jill Dando, the Brixton Nail Bomber and many other aspects of the uncertain hold we have on our so-called civilisation.

The Keighley News ran stories about a border collie standing in the local elections (must be barking mad), a dancerless Maypole dancing competition, Worth Valley sewerage, Keighley Cougars, half a million lottery pounds for worthy causes and sundry other items about life in and around Keighley.

Never before in the history of mankind have we been bombarded with so much information. The amount of verbiage aimed at us is enormous, and set to increase.

What I find difficult is sorting out fact from fiction. I like to be selective.

You only have to read the letters pages of any newspaper to discover that there are frequently two (or even more) viewpoints to each issue: the Aspinalls versus the Maddocks, the Samuels versus the Youngs, etc.

The thing is, which of these stories is important, relevant or pertinent to getting through every day with at least a modicum of sanity. The answer, of course, is none of them and all of them - depending on your point of view.

The problem with points of view is that you have to stand in different places to get them. Also, the question of perspective raises its ugly head, and ugly it certainly can be because everyone believes the evidence of their own eyes. However, appearances can be deceiving (sorry about all the cliches) and no matter how many pieces of information are available they are all from someone else's viewpoint.

Another problem is that when writing their news accounts some writers don either their rose tinted specs or a pair of binoculars.

On the one hand selectivity is the name of the game, on the other hand the larger picture is ignored. Each skews the perspective.

It's my feeling that news stories, from the most parochial to the world shattering, must be regarded as opinion.

I'm not suggesting that the reporting of these events contains lies, but, by definition, they have been written from another's perspective.

I wouldn't go as far as Disraeli who, so Mark Twain informs us, said that "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics". But, I would counsel that the proverbial pinch of salt be taken when reading newspaper stories.

So, by all means, continue to be appalled, amused or downright intrigued by the stories you read in the newspapers: from the mundane to the political, from the animal to the human. But, what you read is merely from someone else's angle, a response to someone else's agenda.

Even what you have read here on page ten is simply one person's ramblings: believe nothing, suspect everything and doubt all except the evidence of your own sceptical eyes.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.