Journalism: a noble profession in pursuit of (flexible) truth.

Dude!!!

I was in the paper: (the link isn't up any longer....'cause it's very old!).

But then come back, so I can give you the backstory and you can see how the press really works.

So, what happened is, me and my darling friends K and J meet up at the skating rink in Millenium Park (which is this huge, ridiculously expensive park that Chicago is curently building...I can't decide if it's revolutionary and cool, or just an eyesore). As we're walking over to find a spot to sit in some shade (as it was one of our recent warm and sunny days - a nice contrast from the freakin' cold-and-rainy shit we've had for moooooonths now), a reporter comes up to the three of us and asks us about a particular piece of sculpture in the park that has just been officially named by its creator.

The name was "Cloud Gate" and the reporter asked us what we thought of that name.

We all agreed it was an odd name for a sculpture that looked like a giant stainless steel coffee bean, but that it was more poetic than calling it "the bean," which is what local vernacular has dubbed it this far. J said maybe it was a "Jack and the Beanstalk" reference. I said that no matter what it was called "officially," people would call it "the bean" anyway.

Then the reporter mentions that it sounded like some sort of scandal, a la Watergate.

The three of us laughed, and I said, "Well, considering how much this park's costing, it's not out of the question." They took our pictures, got our names and info, and we went on our merry way.

The next morning, I was greeted by a co-worker who had a copy of the Sun Times to show me. Basically, I come off sounding like some sort of conspiracy theorist, and the only quotes he included from J and K were "lovely" and "really pretty." Needless to say, we were all surprised at how the story characterized things - basically, the reporter lead us to the angle he was looking for, then got one of us to say something he could quote to support his premise....which is fine, but a slight bending of the truth.

And people wonder why everybody mis-trusts the media...