A failure of journalistic ethics gave us Trump because we, the citizens, allowed the watchdogs to morph into demagogues. Check out NPR's Code of Ethics to find hope in the future of news media.
The only thing I would add to this is how important it is to financially support the few remaining independent media outlets that have no problem speaking truth to power and don’t try to be “balanced” by claiming left and right-wing extremists are equally dangerous or employ the same tactics to win at all costs. Two examples that come immediately to mind are the Texas Observer (which published my “A Party Built Entirely on Lies” article about the Texas GOP and will be publishing another one I’m working on about the danger of Christian nationalism and how it clearly contradicts the teachings of Jesus and how he treated people) and DAME magazine.
Strong, strong work. When did the 4th Estate abandon ethics? When did the the watchdog become attack dog for hire? And Why? Perhaps some of the feistiest flag-bearers of “free speech” are conscious or unconscious shills for profiteers and profiteering? Or just the very profiteers themselves?! Maybe we are witnessing a strain of absolute libertarianism that is guise for profound selfishness - one that makes for the escape from or ignorance of the responsibilites of the human condition: that we are neither separate from each other or the world. Have we lost the capacity or will for the difficult work of conscious choice involved in checking evil? I, for one, hope the Alex Jones judgement holds and is a shot heard round the media world! Democracy depends on the open-minded commitment to ethics. Ethics is our guide to the ways we choose to read the world and ethics is our guide to making the difficult choices of where boundaries and guardrails and, yes, lawful punishments need be. A reviving of ethics is also how we reanimate decency in our culture. I see your work as of a piece with this. So, thank you. It’s not easy. Never has been, inter or intra-personally. But how else to live with each other and in assent with Nature or God or . . .?
I also think to an extent you miss the point. The mainstream media is increasingly irrelevant since they can’t function as gatekeepers anymore. Some conservative politicians simply refuse to be interviewed by the press. Look how few press conference Trump’s administration conducted at the end. The Right correctly concluded there was no punishment for this behavior and that their message was best amplified through social media and the echo chamber of right wing talk shows. Finally, Russian money and conservative political movements around the world have perverted the Social Media system using it to spread lies and suppress the votes of detractors. BREXIT and Trump’s narrow wins would not have been possible without this unholy alliance.
And even NPR has “experts” from right wing talk shows that spout utter nonsense and lies while their journalists adhere to both-siderism trying to parse an insurrection and a President that has broken more Federal laws than I have fingers and toes. The New York Times is even worse in this regard having paved the way for Trump at the expense of Hillary Clinton. If these are our watchdogs bound by a code of ethics they are asleep and chained.
“A failure of journalistic ethics gave us Trump in 2016 because we, the citizens, allowed the watchdogs to morph into demagogues.” Our media choices matter. Let’s work to take Fox out of our cable boxes.
The only thing I would add to this is how important it is to financially support the few remaining independent media outlets that have no problem speaking truth to power and don’t try to be “balanced” by claiming left and right-wing extremists are equally dangerous or employ the same tactics to win at all costs. Two examples that come immediately to mind are the Texas Observer (which published my “A Party Built Entirely on Lies” article about the Texas GOP and will be publishing another one I’m working on about the danger of Christian nationalism and how it clearly contradicts the teachings of Jesus and how he treated people) and DAME magazine.
Strong, strong work. When did the 4th Estate abandon ethics? When did the the watchdog become attack dog for hire? And Why? Perhaps some of the feistiest flag-bearers of “free speech” are conscious or unconscious shills for profiteers and profiteering? Or just the very profiteers themselves?! Maybe we are witnessing a strain of absolute libertarianism that is guise for profound selfishness - one that makes for the escape from or ignorance of the responsibilites of the human condition: that we are neither separate from each other or the world. Have we lost the capacity or will for the difficult work of conscious choice involved in checking evil? I, for one, hope the Alex Jones judgement holds and is a shot heard round the media world! Democracy depends on the open-minded commitment to ethics. Ethics is our guide to the ways we choose to read the world and ethics is our guide to making the difficult choices of where boundaries and guardrails and, yes, lawful punishments need be. A reviving of ethics is also how we reanimate decency in our culture. I see your work as of a piece with this. So, thank you. It’s not easy. Never has been, inter or intra-personally. But how else to live with each other and in assent with Nature or God or . . .?
I also think to an extent you miss the point. The mainstream media is increasingly irrelevant since they can’t function as gatekeepers anymore. Some conservative politicians simply refuse to be interviewed by the press. Look how few press conference Trump’s administration conducted at the end. The Right correctly concluded there was no punishment for this behavior and that their message was best amplified through social media and the echo chamber of right wing talk shows. Finally, Russian money and conservative political movements around the world have perverted the Social Media system using it to spread lies and suppress the votes of detractors. BREXIT and Trump’s narrow wins would not have been possible without this unholy alliance.
And even NPR has “experts” from right wing talk shows that spout utter nonsense and lies while their journalists adhere to both-siderism trying to parse an insurrection and a President that has broken more Federal laws than I have fingers and toes. The New York Times is even worse in this regard having paved the way for Trump at the expense of Hillary Clinton. If these are our watchdogs bound by a code of ethics they are asleep and chained.
Thanks for this, Angus. My next piece is Failure #2 = the U.S. Education System. This is grist for the mill.
“A failure of journalistic ethics gave us Trump in 2016 because we, the citizens, allowed the watchdogs to morph into demagogues.” Our media choices matter. Let’s work to take Fox out of our cable boxes.