Whilst it’s acceptable to place your personal opinions in an editorial, because that is exactly what it is – an opinion (the editor’s), this is not the case with news reporting.

News reporting should be unbiased and as an old television police series “Dragnet”  (1951) starring jack Webb was alleged to say to a female eye witness to a crime, “Just the facts, ma’am” (it was actually “All we want [or “need”] are the facts, ma’am”) this is exactly what a news story should contain.

However, that has sadly changed.

News stories are slanted whatever which way the media owner wants and even more subtle ways are to leave out of the news altogether the part of the story that offends.

It is the job of a news reporter to ask questions without any personal bias and this can be difficult.

Just recently Cayman’s ruling Progressive’s have found fault with what they consider anti government biased news stories and editorials. It has resulted in complaints sent to the offending media house with the media house responding to the complaint almost with glee saying how happy they are to publish the government’s letter. As the government had also sent the same release to all of Cayman’s media houses it would have looked singularly bad if the offending media house hadn’t!

Unfortunately, instead of leaving it at that the government has fallen into the trap by now not engaging with regular press conferences giving their reason – so Cayman’s media won’t take “pot shots” at them! If Cayman’s media wants to take pot shots it can do it more easily ‘behind the backs of the politicians’. It is harder to do it face to face.

To give us all a good story, immediately after that vibe, the premier goes to London accepting an invitation he is “humbled” to accept, from of all media houses, the BBC, to appear on ‘HARDtalk’.

Once, a long time, ago the BBC had a reputation for publishing the facts but that has been found to be the opposite over the last ten years. When it comes to the reporting, or lack of it, over their own broadcaster, Sir Jimmy Savile, it actually goes back 50 years. See today’s stories about Jimmy Savile that also shows a police cover up, too.

It is not just the BBC.

The way the USA networks report anything to do with Barack Obama and the Democrats depends on whether it’s a story especially coming from ABC, NBC or CBS (for Obama) or Fox (against Obama). The big screw up by Hillary Clinton over Benghazi was downplayed by ABC, NBC, and CBS whilst Chris Christie’s is blown up out of all proportions. I have to ask what was the worse screw up and what it caused?

It is a similar case with the Christians and the Muslims wars that have been going on from the time of the peace loving Muhammad.

Muhammad, the peacemaker and leader of the Muslims, viewed by them as the successor to Jesus. And the Christian crusades that were aggressive wars of expansion fought by religious fanatics in order to evict Muslims from their homeland, and force conversions to Christianity.

Two weeks ago a group of vigilante Christians killed at least 12 Muslims, including a pregnant woman and 10 children. The gang of Christians disembowelled the pregnant woman and slashed the children with machetes in the attack against Muslims. The attack took place around 95km north of the capital Bangui, Central Afica.

And after that, another group killed 27 Muslims in another Muslim village. A so called Christian spokesperson said smilingly to the TV reporter, “Anyone who is Muslim will be killed.”

And the slant on all that? The actual facts?

Muhammad was never a peace lover. He was a warrior. He conquered by the sword, starting with raids on merchant caravans. Those who opposed his teaching were physically conquered and often given the option of conversion or death. Mohammed’s kingdom is definitely “of this world” as has been quoted many times, because “his nation is the best of nations” in Islamic thought.

Anywhere Islam becomes the predominant religious conviction, the government becomes an arm of Islam and is used to enforce religious law and punish any teaching or practice contrary to Muslim tenets. It is illegal for Christians to evangelize or even openly read a Bible in Islamic countries.

If Mohammed’s example were not sufficient, the Qur’an advocates “holy war” or “jihad.” The so-called “militant Muslims” of al Qaeda and Hamas are really just Muslims who take Mohammed and their Qur’an seriously and at face value. The Qur’an teaches, “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them…lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way…”

The crusaders were reacting to over four centuries of relentless Islamic Jihad, which had wiped out over 50% of all the Christians in the world and conquered over 60% of all the Christian lands on earth – before the crusades even began. Many of the towns liberated by the crusaders were still over 90% Christian when the crusaders arrived. The Middle East was the birthplace of the Christian Church. It was the Christians who had been conquered and oppressed by the Seljuk Turks. Many of the towns in the Middle East welcomed the crusaders as liberators.

Far from the crusaders being the aggressors, it was the Muslim armies, which had spread Islam from Saudi Arabia across the whole of Christian North Africa into Spain and even France within the first century after the death of Muhammad. Muslim armies sacked and slaughtered their way across some of the greatest Christian cities in the world, including Alexandria, Carthage, Antioch and Constantinople. These Muslim invaders destroyed over 3,200 Christian churches just in the first 100 years of Islam.

As for the Christians killing the Muslims in Central Africa. Unfortunately all true. However, it was the reporting or lack of detailed reporting on the other side that is the slant.

Before the Christians went on the rampage this story appeared in the world news.

“1,000 Christians were killed in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, in just two days of violence in December last year by Muslims.”

For some reason the details of the deaths of the 1,000 Christians were only sparsely reported.  How many women and children died? I don’t know. No graphic details of how these people died?

We saw demonstrations from across the world of Muslims against the Christian atrocities, peaceful in that they were not killing Christians. We saw the retaliation by Christians of actually killing Muslims.

That, unfortunately, is the state of our reporting. And don’t think the public doesn’t see it.

This is the reason social media has taken off at such a gallop. It is trusted.

Well for now it is. But even there the huge corporations and governments have now learnt to use social media. Once they were trying to suppress it. Now they embrace it as a tool.

And social media, of course, doesn’t put any slant on what it shows or says? But it is just that, isn’t it?

“Social media refers to interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks” says Wikipedia.

Wow. You can really take pot shots at people with that!!!