Who sets the agenda?
16 July 2011
Who is it that sets the national agenda?
In her resignation statement, the former News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks said: “At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons. Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones.”
The media, and powerful media moguls, think that they set the agenda. However Brooks confesses that in spite of such wishful thinking, events are the real agenda setting issues. Politicians, through the Queen’s Speech and such like activities, also set the agenda. Every business in the country sets its agenda. But what about the news agenda?
History writes the news agenda in retrospect and, with the benefit of hindsight, its assessment is very different from history in the making. Each of these is very different from divine fore-telling the news of the future. It is God Who moves the events of history, which is “His story”. “But God is Judge: He puts down one, and sets another up” Psalm 75:7.
The good news is that whatever the vicissitudes of life’s turmoils, “God reigns, let the Earth be glad, and isles rejoice each one” Psalm 97:1. When the apostle Paul was caught in a life-threatening storm in the Mediterranean Sea, the news of the day may have included the storm but more likely the events in Caesar’s palace and the other capitals around the Roman world. All such news has long been forgotten, but the Holy Spirit has preserved in Scripture the news that is worth keeping, that the apostle to the Gentiles was directing a band of frightened Roman soldiers how to manage a few hundred terrified men on board an endangered ship, because he must reach Rome safely to witness before the emperor about the Christian Gospel.
The news worth proclaiming is the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ - news which changes people’s hearts, lives and eternal destiny. If Rupert Murdoch paid attention to the Bible from which his grandfather used to preach, he would realise that it is not making news for the present which counts, but making news with a lasting ring to it - an eternal ring.
We should endeavour to set today’s agenda not to sell newspapers but to make an eternal difference. There are those who are long since dead, but their works are still reaping a good harvest for eternity. This is why Scripture says: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” Revelation 14:13. What news will follow Murdoch’s life; what works will follow him into eternity? It is the end of the story which counts. However, there is still time for Murdoch, and everyone else for that matter, to consider their ways and be wise. Let us set our agenda that our news will be worth speaking about in eternity itself.
