Most of the time this blog traces elements of spiritual formation or pieces of wisdom that I cull from my reading and thinking.
Sometimes I come across thinking about current events that troubles me. These are things I’d like to pass on as thought experiments for you. Or perhaps bring to realization something you just pass by.
One reason I quit watching TV news decades ago, aside from an acute dislike of emotional manipulation, was the answer to this question—Do I really need to know that?
I love Om Malik’s perspective and thinking. He just wrote about some recent news about the founder of Bitcoin in Banksy, Satoshi & The Unmasking Impulse.
First Banksy and then Satoshi. Something about their unmasking is not sitting right with me. I am bothered by it. I am annoyed by it. And even more annoyed with myself because as a former journalist I should understand, but I don’t. I am referring to Reuters’s meticulous investigation and unmasking of Banksy, and John Carreyrou’s in-depth report labeling Adam Back as Satoshi, the creator of Bitcoin.
Both investigations are technically impressive. Both raised the same question I keep turning over: what exactly was accomplished here, and for whom?
The journalist gets a career-defining scoop. The subject loses something they can never recover. Anonymity, once broken, doesn’t come back. There’s no correction that restores it.
Aside from the ego of the reporter, was any good derived from this? How much do we see or read that really adds to the quality of my life?
There are things and events that I really do need to know about. That makes news media such a conundrum. In electrical engineering we discuss finding the signal amidst the noise. That is the problem. I need the signal. But finding it amongst all the noise is distressing.
I try to provide maximum signal with minimum noise. I hope I generally succeed.
Faith Venture 
April 17, 2026 at 5:23 am |
yes, you do succeed. At least with me.