Image Credit: The Canadian Press

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Alex Trebek, and why simple facts are in jeopardy

Aug 30, 2019 | 4:43 AM

WHEN I WAS QUITE YOUNG, I loved watching the TV show Jeopardy!

I remember rushing from school over to my grandparents’ place a block away so I could watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! at my grandmother’s side.

I haven’t watched the show in years, but I recognize its appeal in a world where what it represents is increasingly under attack.

Jeopardy! is all about facts.

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There is a right answer and a wrong answer to questions of fact.

There are no alternative facts, and what Alex Trebek says is truth, plain and simple.

In 2019, the sum total of humanity’s knowledge is available to everyone via the internet. The facts are there for all to see.

Our public discourse should not be a matter of getting on the same page; it should be a matter of the best way to interpret those facts to forge a path forward that is just and full of opportunity for everyone.

Instead, we are somehow still talking about the facts of climate change, for example, as if they are in dispute.

We are still hearing about people who believe the Earth is flat and vaccines cause autism and dinosaurs never existed.

Who knows what contrarian bent these people are tapping into in order to convince themselves the facts verified by centuries of scientific method are somehow less authoritative than their own claptrap?

Alex Trebek confirmed this week, in his trademark matter-of-fact manner, that he is coming back from cancer treatment to resume Jeopardy! tapings.

We desperately need him, if only as the embodiment of an authority telling the world that there are right and wrong answers, and facts should not be in dispute.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.