Is a picture worth more than a thousand words?

As humans we may tend to make assumptions. How many times have we not judged a book by its cover? I’m guilty of that, and although I say to myself “I won't judge a person based on their appearance anymore” it still seems to happen from time to time. Perhaps it's in human nature, but I'm not sure. When we see something, for example: a picture on the news and we hear/watch the story, if the picture/video “match” what the news tells us then we are quick to believe it. And I will take as an example the “teen’s confrontation with Native American elder”.   

Although this event took place about a month ago many of my friends and people I talk with don’t know the true/ full story, which is why I picked this article. In the media I saw a lot of negative things said towards this group of teens and even I was quick to make a judgement based on what I heard/read on some news. Yet never did I hear anything said about a group called “Black Hebrew Israelites”, a group that was shouting insults at the teens, such as: “incest babies” “future shooters of America” along other very nasty and offensive things.  I’m thankful for technology and glad that different people were able to record other sides and longer videos that show more context of what was really going on. I was going to refer to an older article (1) but just came across this new one (2), and in this article it talks about a group of investigators that were hired to look for further evidence to see if the teens were really the ones who started and created a confrontation. “Build the wall” was never something the teens shouted, yet I heard from some news stating the teens said it. The investigators interviewed over 40 students, and reviewed footage from YouTube, Vimeo, and news networks to come up with their conclusions.  

I believe it to be a great article and invite you all to take a read at it. So that we can stay better informed and check the facts, checking to see if what one news source reports is true. Not just about this event but about others that occur every day. 

(1) https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/01/22/native-american-maga-teen-confrontation-washington-dc 

(2) https://www.npr.org/2019/02/15/695036694/covington-catholic-teens-cleared-of-wrongdoing-by-detective-agency