Journalistic Hoax

I was intrigued by the reference to the Escher painting and the observation of the geese flying east while others saw them flying west. That simple acknowledgment unleashed a torrent that had been pent up in me for many years regarding disingenuous, if not dishonest, journalism. Seeing what others, imply they see while myself, disbelieving, but not for the most obvious of reasons.

When I first started practice in Greenwich (1972),  a journalist for the Sunday NY Times magazine asked if I would agree to an interview concerning a feature article on “How to select an orthodontist”. She got my name from a colleague who was splitting his time between his Long Island practice and a volunteer position in Harlem. I suppose my perspective was to represent the “up-scale ” community while my colleague represented the deprived in Harlem. To answer her question I suggested to the reporter that referrals from others dentist would be helpful, discussion with other families in treatment and obtaining second or third opinions would be advisable as well. (there was no Internet). As an aside, she asked if there was anything outside of the actual practice that gave me particular satisfaction. I had just given a lecture and presented a film on a new concept in growth and development based on the capsular growth theory at the Greater New York Orthodontic conference and I told her I found that very satisfying. Now–this is her reference to me in the magazine “An affable orthodontist from Greenwich who prefers making movies to daily practice” . The geese are confused.

My colleague in Harlem was asked if he treated his Harlem patients differently than his Long Island patients. He pointed out that skeletal patterns dictate treatment goals and since there was a distinct skeletal difference between his Caucasian Long Island patients and his Harlem patients, yes, in that context different goals and treatment strategies are considered. The reporter only referenced the portion of the quote that said he treated the Harlem patients differently than he treated his Long Island patients. The hospital where he volunteered in Harlem knew exactly what he meant but the neighborhood population was incensed  so he was released. Now they had no one. This reporter, Cynthia Cohen, went on to interview two other practitioners in Westchester and shamelessly defamed them. My point ..I don’t trust much of what I read. If they say the geese are flying east..I’ll track down the gaggle and confirm for myself which way they are going.

Case in point. I read an article in the NY times (1990) that told a story about a young woman , Marisol Rodrizuez, from Buffalo , who had an unplanned pregnancy and at the last moment opted out of an abortion because her friend who accompanied her was holding her own child and Marisol could draw no distinction between that child and the one she was carrying. She then returned home to her unwitting parents. When the paperwork from the clinic came to the house her father found out about the pregnancy and threw her out. She sought refuge with a group of women devoted to pregnancy assistance. The title of the article in the Times was “Women opts out of abortion…receives baby shower but little else from pregnancy support group”. The obvious slant of the article was that there is no real assistance to be found in pregnancy support groups. I tracked down every person mentioned in the article and asked them to relay to me personally what had taken place.

The first woman I  contacted, took Marisol immediately to Sister’s hospital for pre-natal evaluation. She then brought her to a colleague who took Marisol in, giving up her own bedroom, while herself sleeping on a pull -out on an enclosed porch. That women who housed Marisol, told me she got her to return to school and found her an after school job. This woman had no idea as to whether or not her new tenant was a thief, drug addict, or violent, yet, she took her in at great risk to herself. They arranged for a physician to monitor her whole pre-natal care and continued to try to break down barriers with the estranged father of Marisol. Finally Marisol has the baby and the support group does have a baby shower, but she also has a residence, schooling and a job. When Marisol brings the baby to visit her parents, Marisol’s father falls in love with the baby and expresses his shame for having rebuked his daughter. So, therefore, the ultimate resolution– reconciliation. I wrote the Times and exposed their journalist charade asking if an assaulted homeless man had been brought to the emergency room and the doctors stopped the bleeding, restored the breathing, healed his wounds and placed him in a shelter, would they be faulted by this same reporter because the hospital failed to find him a 9-5 white collar job? I was surrounded by the misrepresentation of things as I saw them– Somebody help, the geese are falling!

I read an article on the front page of USA Today that was presenting an argument supported by opposing philosophies on an issue and to give credibility to each side, the reporter, Tony Moro, listed the agencies that supported the warring points of view. On one hand he mentioned three organizations that everyone knew to be large and influential entities that represented thousands of people. On the other side, he mentioned three other institutions that were to act as a counterweight  but one of the organizations had the obscure name “International women of Concern.” It sounded like a phalanx of 100,000 women. I tracked down the organization out of Chicago and found out there were 11 women in this organization. I called the reporter at USA Today and asked if he knew how many people that this counterweight organization represented. He said he did not know but assumed from their “friend of the cause” position there had to be thousands. He was aghast to find out the chimera he created.  There was to be a rally in Washington on another subject the following day and he asked if I was attending. I said yes, but only to establish a presence. He said he was doing the front page article on that event and asked if I would offer a reflection on my observation from the rally site and I obliged. The geese were now lost.

In the mid 1980′ there was not one sports team in NY that offered any thrill for the fans of the whole NY area except the basketball team from St johns College coached by Lou Carneseca. They were vying for the national championship and NY was in a fever pitch because St John’s was the only team to beat the runaway favorite, Georgetown, during the regular season. The whole town was aglow with enthusiasm and pride in the Redman. As in turned out, St John’s lost in the national semi-final to Georgetown in a tight game. The headline on the sports page read “WHY REDMAN ARE LOSERS”. I was sickened by this betrayal of a bunch of kids who played their guts out, gave NY a thrill, received no financial compensation and then were referred to as LOSERS. The play on words came from the coach’s first name Lou but that fact did not mitigate the travesty. I wrote the reporter and chastised him for presumably dedicating his life to sports, the foundation of which is sportsmanship, and then to shamelessly reduce the season and the efforts of these kids to the epitaph. Losers. I received a call from him a few days later and he apologized profusely explaining that, although he wrote the substance of the article, which I agreed was insightful, his editor came up with the boorishly inappropriate headline thinking it was clever. Shoot down the geese!

From then on, I went to most events to confirm reality for myself. I went to the Clinton impeachment trial, the Skakel murder trial, twice to the Khmer Rouge genocide trial in Phnom Penh amongst others. When I read a book I checked the references. The Da Vinci Code had me pull out every art history book I could find and compared the art works to the author’s portrayal and then researched every organization he referenced. I probably wouldn’t have bothered to dig that deeply if Dan Brown admitted that it was a novel. He had the predictable technique of introducing a dollop of truth and expanding it exponentially.  It was terrific reading and he had great twists but he got so wrapped up in his veiled treatise that he defended it more like a dissertation then a thriller novel. The geese look confused!

The worst was Tuesdays with Morrie. This became a literary bible. I received the book from a lady friend I worked with in Vietnam and I respected her opinion, but she too was taken in by this syrupy, self absorbed, dramatization of a dying man who believed he was passing on profound wisdom to the younger man and all I could think of was …what took this old fart so long to figure out what most kids know by age 12. Money isn’t everything…is that your best Morrie.?…Relationships are important…gag me with a spoon! Maybe by dying on TV I will attain the immortality I don’t believe in anyway because I am an atheist.  Morrie,. you should have a talk with Shelly’s Ozymadeus,… buried in the sand… of a distant land. Equally disturbing was that his pupil who was in awe of this dribble apparently had never heard any of this before. What a glorious, cinematic, epiphany.   The geese were an illusion …they never were!