Once upon a time the news media members of the Fourth Estate, those who claimed to be the defenders of freedom and watchdogs for the public, were signatory to the Code of Ethics for the Society of Professional Journalists. That Code of Ethics identifies the various standards for the industry which they summarize as follows.
Journalists should:
Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before
releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.
Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.
Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in
promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.
Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.
Be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.
Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible
to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.
Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for
sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information
that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.
Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism
or allegations of wrongdoing.
Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information
unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.
Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.
Give voice to the voiceless.
Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and
government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the
open, and that public records are open to all.
Provide access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate.
Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience.
Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear.
Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and
experiences may shape their reporting.
Label advocacy and commentary.
Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.
Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.
Never plagiarize. Always attribute.
The Society of Professional Journalists, formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn.
For over one hundred years this society has worked to adopt and maintain a Code of Ethics to guide all journalists in their work and to make certain every effort is made to assure fair and balanced news coverage.
Today, sadly, as is obvious when reviewing the standards inherent in the Society Code, a vast number of principles of good journalism are being violated by the news media. It seems the day of objectivity, fair and balanced coverage, even measures to assure truth in reporting, have been cast aside by our news organizations.
From the corporate boardrooms of the news media to the college classrooms teaching our next generation of journalists there is a wholesale disregard for our Constitutional protection of the news media. You see, no Constitutional guarantee comes without reciprocal action to accept responsibility for adhering to the standards being protected.
In truth, our Bill of Rights is really a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities in which the federal government provides protection and those protected must assume responsibility to adhere to standards and principles consistent with our way of life. That responsibility to maintain standards has been tossed on the trash heap of forgotten promises to the people.
News reporting used to be a meticulous search for truth but today it is no more than a stampede for ratings and readers using a profit driven bias and a desire to exploit the public while serving the stockholders. They are hypocrites through and through.
Once upon a time our news anchors represented the best in American values. But all that died when the Walter Cronkite’s of the world passed the baton to the New World Order of journalists.
Bias is the new standard and truth is no longer a priority in reporting. The media and the profit mongers controlling them decided ratings were dependent upon controversy, generating hatred, undermining truth and exploiting a combined campaign by multiple news sources. The members of the far left (extreme liberals) were united against a very few defenders of the president, Fox News most notably. Both sides were guilty of many questionable news practices to hype their cause.
One thing they really underestimated was that the public would immediately see through the falsehoods bombarding the general public through the news media. It is the public who are the true watchdogs of the public interest for they are the only defenders of the public interest. They also long ago recognized the impending collapse of institutions like the news media, federal government, political parties and others who have outlived their usefulness.
People no longer trust the media because the media has abandoned the search for truth. There can be no more telling sign than the cancellation of newspaper and magazine subscriptions, the epic collapse in television ratings, and the cord cutting of the public from the broadcast and cable television networks.
Back in that time, Walter Cronkite consistently drew 27-29 million viewers every night and on occasion soared to over 50 million for special events. He was the most trusted man in America. Today there are far more media outlets and there were 205 million people in the US back then compared to 330 million today. Yet, if you total the audience for all the news media today, broadcast and cable, it falls short of Walter alone.
In the not too distant past news directors decided what to report. Today, algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) decide what to publish and how to maximize the bias. The news media of today works to create the news, not just report it. It wants to convince people what to think, not to present both sides of issues and let the people make up their own minds.
The news media and social media owners became collaborators and made a calculated decision to tell people what to think, subtly of course, in the dominant issue of the day, President Donald Trump, the consummate outsider.
Why? Because he threatened those news reporters who used government insiders to routinely get leaked confidential, proprietary and even classified information, the lifeblood of an unscrupulous media.
The Trump threat must end so they first tried to stop Trump from getting elected which failed miserably. Then they tried to force him to resign from the presidency through scandalous events from Trump’s past which also failed miserably. Finally, they united to get him impeached which has failed thus far.
By using a variety of highly questionable news services and mysterious anonymous sources to generate news stories, thus creating an avalanche of spurious and incendiary rumors, half-truths and fake news to stop him from getting re-elected, such was their hatred and fear of the renegade president.
That was only the beginning. Once credible news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC and ABC along with most cable affiliates and channels such as CNN, MSNBC, CBSN and network streaming services were part of the movement to impeach or disenfranchise the duly elected president of the people.
For those of you not familiar with the news business, there are many ways to slant coverage in a negative light like misleading headlines leading into the story or using dated or provocative videos with bad people such as Trump with Epstein though the video is over 20 years old.
They consistently load all panels of experts with Obama/Clinton lovers and Trump haters, Republicans who are outcasts from their own party, or officials fired from the Trump era. Often times CNN and MSNBC seem more like the PR arm of the Democratic National Committee than news outlets and it seems as if a requirement to get on the air is to have worked for Obama, be fired by Trump, or pledge allegiance to the destruction of Trump.
Of course, the public knows better as noted from the collapse in ratings and readers so in the end, should Trump survive and get re-elected, the Swamp may yet get drained. This should be a lesson to all aspiring journalists, if you want to report the news you must have solid principles and take responsibility for your actions in serving the public trust. Seek the truth.
