The following, which is taken from 'Signs of hope and some positive proposals in the global financial crisis' by Rev. Robert Morrison and which I understand to have been issued by the Christian Association of Business Executives (CABE), has some interesting resonances with my earlier posts in this series; here, here and here:
"There is a great difference between our times and the great civilisations of the past. Economic cause and effect is now linked at the speed of fibre optics, fuelling feedback loops of spin and commentary, not least in the hothouse of 24 hour media expectations. They are constantly turning bad news into head lines news and that just undermines confidence across the globe. It creates a profound sense of despair and despondency or just denial and disbelief. But there is no point in pretending it’s not as bad as it really is. It would be unethical for governments to cover up the truth and no one wants to live in a dictatorship like contemporary Zimbabwe or Stalinism, where the truth is constantly denied and the press controlled or suppressed. But even in a free press environment, news is a commodity that makes some people rich and others poorer. The commodity of information is owned by someone and serves their ends and self interest. This is not conspiracy theory, but a fact. Public watchdogs are needed to challenge the distortion and exaggeration of particular stories or just lazy journalism which uses the defence that good news doesn’t sell newspapers. What kind of society would not want to report and celebrate good news and success as an encouragement to others and to rejoice the heart? What kind of journalist is incapable of turning good news stories into commercial successes?"
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Delirious? - Kingdom Of Comfort.
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