Comments on: Don't trust the messenger

Question: Don't trust the messenger

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:10:17 -0800

EpigramFilter: What's the converse of "Don't kill the messenger"?

You frequently hear the expression
Don't blame the bearer of bad news.
But you don't often hear the converse, and I believe it is equally valid:
A scoundrel or a fool can make the best of news seem bad.
"Don't judge a book by its cover" is the usual way of saying this, but it doesn't really convey the emotional weight of situations like

A brilliant symphony is premiered by an unsympathetic or incompetent orchestra and its genius remains unrecognized for years.
A child abandons her faith because her only reference point for the religion is her hypocritical family
An admirable proposition can be distorted into ridiculous Straw Man argument.
A new or nuanced idea is almost certainly going to be greeted with ridicule when it is first presented, especially if it threatens the status quo.

Surely this is an ancient insight. Am I just missing the obvious adage?

By: Aquaman

Aquaman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:21:38 -0800

Wouldn't the converse be "blame the bearer of bad news"? Don't really need an aphorism for that one.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:25:12 -0800

The technical converse would be: If you killed the messenger, it wasn't because he brought bad news.

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:36:50 -0800

A = Bad News, B = good messenger, turns into not B implies not A. Sorry, looks like I meant contrapositive, not converse.

By: ClaudiaCenter

ClaudiaCenter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:39:36 -0800

Reminds me a little of "the medium is the message." I've also seen: "Good message, bad messenger."

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:02:42 -0800

Going along with ClaudiaCenter here. I've said things like "the messenger killed the message."

By: madmethods

madmethods — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:07:53 -0800

Huh. I actually thought of "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". Sort of similar to your "don't judge a book by its cover".

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:12:13 -0800

Fuzzy Skinner and ClaudiaCenter are pretty close. Yes, that's the literal contrapositive. I guess what I'm after is something that says, Use some critical thinking when you're hearing something second hand. Either find out for yourself or get a second opinion. Even the Catholic Church uses a Devil's Advocate to give the opposing viewpoint its best shot.

By: vytae

vytae — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:13:26 -0800

"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" seems relevant, though probably more broad then what you're going for.

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:20:17 -0800

It seems like there should be some aphorism along the lines of "a recipe is only as good as its cook" or "a song is only as good as the singer." I don't know if there's a commonly used phrase with that construction and concept (it looks like there isn't), but that's how I'd put it.

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:44:18 -0800

vytae and Metroid Baby are getting pretty close. But baby/bathwater comparison is pretty broad. A good message is more like the bathwater, but it can take a long time to clean it up after the baby releases one microgram of poop.

By: fvw

fvw — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:53:20 -0800

Perhaps not what you're looking for, but I'm partial to "The messenger had it coming."

By: you're only jung once

you're only jung once — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:55:32 -0800

"do kill the messenger" - too hostile?

By: briank

briank — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:40:31 -0800

"He who smell't it, dealt it."

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:16:34 -0800

I'm beginning to think the reason there isn't a pithy aphorism is because there's more than one pith. All of these are sort of relevant:

You can't see the forest for the trees.
Don't let one little cloud ruin your whole day.
There's a bad apple in every bunch.
The song hasn't found its singer.
That's like hiring a fox to guard the henhouse. (if you trust a malicious bearer of bad news)
Taste the soup before you season it.

I guess what I want to convey is that there might be a bigger picture, even if you can't see all of it yet.

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:05:53 -0800

It finally came to me why this seems like an old idea: Noah and the raven. Even when Noah tried sending out a dove, it took 3 tries before he got the information he was looking for.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:33:56 -0800

"A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house." --- Jesus (who, really, ought to know).

By: falconred

falconred — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:20:30 -0800

"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" - while not exactly the opposite, means you should at least be wary of the messenger and their motives

By: saveyoursanity

saveyoursanity — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:46:33 -0800

"Take it with a grain of salt."

(Surprised no one's said it already.)

By: GaelFC

GaelFC — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:29:15 -0800

consider the source?

By: zanni

zanni — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:32:32 -0800

These are more "focus on the message, not the messenger" than "don't trust the messenger:"

"It is the tale, not he who tells it." (Stephen King)
"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:33:29 -0800

Thanks, zanni, you nailed it.

Perhaps my cogitation about this filtered into the ether somehow, because in Obama's speech after the Indiana & North Carolina primaries, he asked us not to give up on the message because it comes from an imperfect messenger.