"I had to make a decision based on what I thought was appropriate for my daughter and for my wife.." Obama, was explaining to the press about his absence from a General Assembly, where an important bill was being voted for. Before that, he had left his family on their own for a lot of times, and during that time, he was on his shortened vacation in Hawaii and his daughter fell sick.
The writer of this book, also a journalist, went on to write :
Most of the roughly fifty seniors who listened to Obama seemed to buy his explanation of a sick child.... I however was more cynical. Using the excuse of a sick toddler while vacationing in Hawaii seemed a bit hard to swallow. THUS, I began my story the next day in the Tribune this way: Proving the political principle that one memorable public decision can define a politician for some time, state Sen. Barack Obama called reporters to a senior citizens' home Sunday to unveil a health care proposal but soon found himself explaining his controversial Christmastime vacation.
See, he did not even mention about the fact that Obama had been leaving his family on their own, due to his tight schedules before that, that his family vacation was actually already cut short to allow him to return to office earlier, and that his daughter fell sick at that time.
What I'm trying to prove and highlight here, as I have mentioned before, is that, how stories in the newspaper are being portrayed to the public is heavily dependent on the journalist's opinion - he writes according to his OWN opinion. Most journalist are not neutral. And that is why, when we read stories in the newspaper, about anything that is not straightforward, we always need to have an open mind, when we read these stories - and remember that we are reading this based on one single (probably unimportant) person's OPINION.
E.g. of a not straightforward story is, "Mr A seemed to shy away from reporters, when he was asked about the incident." or "Mr B said that he does not care about the issue that was being raised". - these can be subjected to the reporter's perception. For all you know, Mr A needed to get to the toilet fast, and Mr B have not looked into the issue just yet.
E.g. of straightforward is, "In an accident on the BKE this morning, a motorcyclist got flung and was hanging on the branch of a tree, until help arrived." In this line, there is little room where the reporter could have slipped in his opinion about what happened.
I watched Muallaf last weekend. It was different. It's thought-provoking.
