For those of you who aren’t familiar with this catchy line, it came from a 1960’s television show called Dragnet staring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan.
(IMDB is a wonderful thing if you’ve never heard of this show or the principal actors.)
Jack Webb – the star of the show playing a straight laced, no-nonsense Los Angeles Police Detective with a monotonic voice – while investigating a crime – would always say [when interviewing a female witness,] – “Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts.”
After 50 years or so since the show, facts are still everything in regards to just about anything concerning the legal system. However – how important are facts in the way we as human beings live our lives in society?
The upcoming series of articles will delve into just that. How facts shape our lives – the decisions we make and what we believe in.
Here’s the sixty four thousand dollar question. Is there a difference between truth – what we believe to be true and what we know to be true? Because the only way a fact can become a universal truth is if it has become proven beyond all doubt – universally. This is why we call them “undisputed facts.”
Facts are nothing more than conclusions based upon supporting evidence which is based upon known facts which are based upon supporting evidence. It’s a vicious circle until somewhere down the line, they begin with an undisputed fact or a universally held fact. That is the starting point. Science and physics are a great example of this.
On the other hand – truth – on a social level – doesn’t appear to be as clear cut. We base truth on information we believe to be true. The incredibly high standards we place on facts described in the paragraph above come no where near the standards we place on that which we believe to be true. I guess that’s why over the last few years the word “Truth” has now become “our truth.” Truth has transcended into simply what one believes to be true. In many instances facts play very little to no role in how they came to their conclusions.
Can we separate truth and fact as two completely different entities with two completely different meanings? If someone believes something to be true, does that make it a fact, or simply their personal opinion – or in other words, ‘their truth?”
That being said, I could take the following series of articles in a thousand different directions but I promise I won’t. It’s a confusing enough topic as it is. What I will do is attempt to clarify what I feel are the most important aspects in regards to the media and how their truths – their facts – shape ours.
