Well, wait a second. Most of us are writing fiction. When you're writing fiction, you define the world. Your goal is then to make people believe what you say by any means necessary.[AOD] wrote:How can one explore controversial issues of this type in a reasonable and evenhanded manner, through comics? Are there any of you who have handled hot topics like this? How did you do it?
That means you create events and items that turn the 'controversial' into common sense. I hope I've convinced people reading my comic that God is a figment of their imagination in my webcomic's world. I'm not trying to convince them of anything outside my fictional world. (But if they want to extrapolate my ideas to real life, I'd be tickled.)
And if I convince people that nuking New York City is the right thing to do, I'll be doing my job. That doesn't mean I actually think it's a good idea.
You, AOD, on the other hand, are not writing fiction. That means you're acting as a reporter. There are two kinds of reporters. Some take press releases from both sides of controversial issues and hand them to the public, telling them to make their own choices. This type of reporter is commonly known as 'Lazy SCUM (So-Called-Unbiased-Media) who are wrecking contemporary journalism'.
The *right* way to be a reporter is to look at the facts, tell those facts to your audience, and give them a clinical summary of what the facts contain. If the facts do not support any specific conclusion, say that. If they weigh heavily on one side of a controversial argument, come down heavily on that side -- if someone claims you're biased, point them to the facts and tell them to wake up and smell reality. A good reporter is unbiased not because he presents all arguments, both good and bad. A good reporter is unbiased like a judge, who hears all arguments, discards the bad ones, and makes a wise decision based upon them.
When you start writing fiction about global warming, you can melt the ice caps with sharks wearing laser beams on their heads, and everyone will agree that it's a serious problem.
