Just the Facts, Ma'am

I designed this blog to be a place where people can find positivity, hope, humor, and light-hearted human interest topics.  I think there’s plenty of negative, politically-based, biased, heavy things to read these days and I vowed when I started this, I would not participate in any of those.  But I have a growing fire in my belly that I decided to write about for my own sake as well as for those of you who may be feeling the same.  I’ve taken the news in small bites in recent years, especially the last two.  There’s a reason for that beyond that it’s dark and depressing every single day if you listen to the major media outlets.  More than being wearied by the bad news bears to the point of complete disillusionment, it’s because I no longer trust our news sources to deliver objective, truthful reporting.  For those of you from countries outside the US, I’m guessing some of this might apply to your news agencies as well.

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you already know that writing has been my forte most of my life.  I got involved in every print publication opportunity that came up in my schooling.  I was a reporter on school newspapers, I was the editor of our high school yearbook.  It wasn’t just what I enjoyed doing, it was my passion.  There were no questions in my mind that I would pursue a career in journalism.  It’s what I went to university to study.  I wasn’t sure how my passion would play out in the journalistic world, but I knew there was something really good about objective reporting of facts so that readers could know what truly was happening. 

In my home growing up, my parents watched the evening news and read the newspaper every day.  We followed all the major world events and talked about what was going on locally, nationally, and worldwide.  It was the era of famous news anchors like Cronkite, Huntley, Brinkley, Jennings, Reasoner.  What each of these had in common was their objective, passionate reporting of the facts of events.  It’s not that they never did editorials or commentaries, but when they did, it was made very clear that those were opinion-based. 

In a recent interview with Ben Swann by Ben Raue, it was pointed out that a lot of things in the news world began to change with the television program, “60 Minutes”.  It was a weekly “news magazine” on CBS.  It offered hard-hitting investigative reports by well-known journalists.  It was transformative in that the format was different than anything before it.  What was also different was that it was financially lucrative for the network, while regular news programs were not.  Companies could purchase advertising that was aired between segments.  It also mingled sponsors and journalistic integrity because what network was going to out something less than desirable from a sponsor of their program? While they should, and some did, it still started news coverage down a very slippery slope.   

You’ve probably heard of the Associated Press.  It’s a non-profit, independent news agency that provides breaking news from all over the world to national and local news organizations. It’s been around a long time (since 1846!) and nearly all journalistic organizations have relied on them for up-to- the-minute, fact-based information.  Its members are US newspapers and broadcasters.  What you may not know is that news organizations may draw from an AP release and edit or tailor it to fit their news audience.  When that happens, it’s no longer a firsthand source.  But since it’s impossible for journalists to be everywhere, organizations must rely on their writers and editors to keep the integrity of the information before it’s distributed. 

I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the integrity of the news has become very cloudy in recent years.  If you listen to news programs today, or read articles in print publications, you can hear a definite bias.  In this digital age, reporters are influenced by their own political leanings and personal preferences that shape the reporting they do.  It's now generally accepted that news organizations lean either liberal or conservative. They are told what to report by higher ups who are not journalists but have profit agendas for their companies. With social media choosing its own “fact-checking” systems, it’s very hard to sort what really is true and accurate.  The phrase, “something’s rotten in Denmark” comes to mind.  That’s a euphemism for corruption or something being less than reliable.  Walter Cronkite must be turning over in his grave, so to speak. 

I long for the “good old days” when news was “just the facts, ma’am”.  Edward R. Murrow said it best, “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.”  In all my journalism classes, my teachers would check us on anything that wasn’t firsthand information or anything embellished in any way to make the story more interesting.  I think that kind of teaching isn’t happening anymore.  It’s breaks my journalistic heart. 

I write this to remind you that all you read or hear isn’t necessarily fact.  As has been said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”  Also don’t buy into everything you read or hear in the mainstream media.  If it smells like a fish, it probably is a fish.  Look at varieties of sources and don’t take everything at face value.  There are good journalists out there, but they are getting harder to find.  In the meantime, back to my regularly scheduled programming.  Maybe my next post will be about baby animals or what I plan to eat for Thanksgiving.  Thanks for indulging me.