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June 15, 2009 | 11:57 am

Huffington: Balance but not at the expense of truth

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I was in Las Vegas last summer when the Los Angeles Press Club named The God Blog the best single-author blog in L.A, and I had planned to skip the banquet again last night to play in the World Series of Poker. It’s a good thing I made a last-minute schedule-change: I won two awards in the under 100,000 circulation category, including Journalist of the Year.

Among the LA Press Club honorees were a colleague of mine from the Daily News, City Hall dean Rick Orlov, who certainly deserved the Joseph Quinn Lifetime Achievement Award, and Arianna Huffington, who was introduced by “Religulous” major domo Bill Maher. Both Huffington and Maher made great remarks; both were serious, though Maher was satirical. First his comments during an introduction that was part stand-up and part self-promotion, which sounds about spot on:

“Osama bin Laden once said that his goal was to bankrupt America. Sorry big guy but a Jew named Bernie Madoff beat you to it,” Maher quipped. “That was the worst pyramid scheme for the Jews since the pyramids. Thank God we have a president whose plan doesn’t involve Jesus coming back.”

I didn’t have a notepad, so I’m waiting for the audio to go up online, but that is roughly what Maher said. Huffington, however, I heard with crystal clarity, primarily because she spoke such Truth to reporting.

“Balance is great,” she said, while discussing the future of journalism. “Except when it comes at the expense of the truth.”

Huffington gave the example of a TV anchor who interviews both Al Gore and Sen. James Inhofe on the topic of global warming, never challenging either with the facts or the evidence but simply playing one quote off the other. She just as easily could have mentioned coverage about whether evolution should be taught in school, gays should be allowed to marry or any other religious hot-button.

On controversial topics, many reporters and news organizations pretend there are only two sides to a story, and that those two sides are best represented by, often times, the most polar of two opinions. In fact, the reality lies somewhere in between. The trouble is that identifying the soft-spoken voice of truth—whether it is Truth or simply truth—takes a lot more energy and effort, and a great deal more insight. It often requires an observer hip to the religious scene. And these days the ranks of religion reporters are fading fast.

After the jump, links to the four stories I submitted for Journalist of the Year. The piece titled “The professor anti-Semites love” was probably the clincher; it also was named Best News Feature:

“L.A.’s defenders of Israel”
“The Professor the anti-Semites love”
“Economic turmoil puts pressure on Jewish community”
“Financial tsunami shakes Jewish Community Foundation”

9 Comments — Leave your comment

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“many reporters and news organizations pretend there are only two sides to a story” - in other words they oversimplify issues. True. And other times they pretend that there is actually more than one side to a story, creating a fake balance and over-complicating issues.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 6/16/09 at 6:23 am

Exactly.

Comment by Brad A. Greenberg on 6/16/09 at 6:26 pm

Congratulations on your awards.  The God Blog is great.  I’m glad to see all religions getting covered intelligently.  The awards are well deserved.

Comment by The Levite Line on 6/20/09 at 6:37 pm

I know I should leave well enough alone, but does your religion have a name?

Comment by Ben Plonie on 6/21/09 at 12:22 am

OK, twice I have written something and twice it has failed to go through.  I will try again.

As for my religion, I do not claim a religion, I claim a covenent with a God.  It may be that you and most others consider this the same thing, I do not, though most of these covenantal duties and beliefs are in the Torah, that is the Five Books of Moses.

You can see more at my website (I wonder if this was why my other messages didn’t go through, so I’ll leave off the www on my web address here): theleviteline.com

The site is a “work in progress” and a storefront will be added, any day now.  The information will give you and anyone else interested an idea of where I am coming from.

I hope you and others will approach this without your mind madeup regarding heresy or other such nonsense.  These are my beleifs and no one is obligated to agree with them (though I believe truth-seekers and those not too wedded to any particular religion might like much of what is there).

I do not mind and appreciate constructive criticism.  I do mind and will likely respond (possibly negatively) to any personal attacks on me.  I also appreciate any compliments as well.

I hope that you will enjoy the site.

Comment by The Levite Line on 6/22/09 at 6:07 pm

In case there is any confusion all the info to read is on the site presently: theleviteline.com

Comment by The Levite Line on 6/22/09 at 6:08 pm

Silly me. I must have been fooled by your comment “I’m glad to see all religions getting covered intelligently.”

As for the website - Bizarre-o-rama. Much as I might have predicted.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 6/23/09 at 1:08 am

And I knew I shouldn’t throw my pearls before swine, as in Orthodox Jews like you, but you asked and I foolishly shared and as usual received some disrespectful asinine reply.  “Bizarre-o-rama.”  What a useless and stupid comment.  You are a piece of sh-t and I’d appreciate it if you never again respond to me on here, but if you do I assure you the gloves are off and all bets are off.  I will verbally tear you and the scumbag culture (Orthodox Jews) that produce scum like you.  And as Jesus said to your Pharasaic forefathers, to paraphrase, Go to Hell, even though you’re too smart to believe in Hell.  And Goddamn ALL of you bastards too.  You Orthodox are beyond sickening and now I know why the Jews are so hated, to have a##holes like you speak and represent Jews, just disgusting.

And to the a**holes who will call me self-hating, wrong this is not me, as I am not Orthodox, obviously.

Comment by The Levite Line on 6/23/09 at 1:45 am

“... as Jesus said to your Pharasaic forefathers…”. The most intelligent thing you have said so far.

OK, let’s get constructive. I can’t quite work up a compliment, but when you say “those not too wedded to any particular religion might like much of what is there” it seems that you offer the worst of all worlds. To me the site says “Put me in charge of the thinking and I’ll let you off for the price of a t-shirt”. In terms of Levite-ness your role model seems to be not Moses but Korach, who also claimed a covenant with a God. If he were alive he might well have a website called The Levite Line. Since his time we have had the instructive experience of the Hasmonean dynasty of the priestly class, which ended badly.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 6/23/09 at 7:51 am

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