A MATTER OF NOSE

                                            She's probably smelling a rat, or two, or three.

In journalism, as in poetry or politics, you can't rely on a well-written press release, a nice picture, a vivid video, a good-looking graphic, or a quite believable spokesperson. And you can't rely on your eyes, your sense of feel, your taste, or your ears. You have to use your nose, all the time. To smell a wiff of perfume (or a rat), you have to be there, to walk the streets of sand of some cities, to be on your knees in the sewers, to lie on your back in your backyard in order to look, apparently just a yard away, at the shooting stars, without yawning, or yelling, or yachting (!), to be present when the ball is kicked off, to be over the top when the bottom fell out, to be in sight of what there was to see, or in touch with what there was to know, to be all ears when there was a sound, or making a Spock of yourself when hearing what others just can't yet...

A nose is so useful, always and nowadays, especially in this era of supposedly Fake News...

Charles Millar