Nit Picking

Anyone with school age children will remember that ominous note from teacher, “Lice Out break in Classroom”. This is not a depression era phenomenon; it’s still happening by the way.

These however are not the nits to which I am referring. The nits I am writing about are the passive aggressive comments made by individuals intent on hijacking news stories, individual accomplishments and successes. Good news, exciting news these days is almost always followed by a series of “nit picking”. Often irrelevant or just plain wrong and only written to divert attention from the meat of the story. Sad and annoyingly the “nit pickers’ get a vicarious thrill by taking someone down who they perceive as powerful/popular what ever.

What is it about a person who faced with a great news story will spend endless time picking around to find the one teeny nit that could be distracting? I am not talking about true investigative journalists; they are like hens’ teeth. My focus is on the nit picker who absent any real creativity or vision spends all of their time picking apart the success of others.

Watch out for the nits, they spread quickly and it can take more than a fine-toothed comb to get to the truth of a story.