False Truths

Last Thursday when my English class took an informative trip to the Addison Gallery here on our campus at Andover, a fellow classmate accidentally coined the ironic term “False Truths.” On initial reaction, it was used when observing one of the photos, entitled “The Soiling of Old Glory,” most easily identified with the Desegregation of Boston Busing. 

To any normal on-looker, the white male in the photo looks as though he is pointing the American flag in the direction of the black male, intending in some way to harm him. It also appears as though another white man is holding the black man in place, as to give the flag bearer a steady target. However, this photo is the perfect example of a false truth because in reality, almost nothing in this photo is what it seems. I say “almost nothing” because it is true that the flag bearer is holding the all-American symbol in anger, but his aim was actually at a window, not the man. Also, the black male in the photo had just tripped prior to the photo and the other white man who appears to be holding him back, was in truth helping him up to his feet. The problem, as presented by the false truth, comes in the way the media presented this image. Not only did the press scale down the photo to put the focus on these three men, but most papers also ran a caption stating something similar to “Desegregation of busing in Boston leads to violence.” The media took the photo and created a different story for the image, a false truth if you will, much different from the actuality of what happened at the event.   The more my class started thinking about this phrase as well as the situation created by the editors in the media, we started to realize just how often this sort of fabrication can occur in the media. Yet, most of us would not even think to question the facts, especially if it came from an authoritative figure or elite source. With this in mind, you have to question what you see and read in the media because everything is not always what it seems.