Media Can Help, Or It Can Hurt

I have the utmost respect for journalism as a profession.

Democracy functions on the backs of its citizens, and it can only be safeguarded when the populace is well informed and understands their duties.

As such, journalists play a remarkably important role in keeping the wheels of justice and power rolling in the right direction. Their job is to speak truth to power, uncover truths and assist the voting public in cementing a coherent worldview.

We've just witnessed the result of an election where most of the voters were ignorant of the real issues at hand.

It's our job as citizens to learn and pay attention, but too many of us quietly abdicate this responsibility until the very last minute. We need to be well informed and aware of what's happening in the world if we're going to be a part of it, yet it's easy to become consumed by the hustle and bustle of daily life.

We depend on qualified professionals to do the legwork and present the facts to us in plain language.

That's why the current state of the news media has me screaming with frustration.

It seems like everywhere you look, the same headlines scream at you from five or six different sites. Half of them cover the same story with minimal edits, providing no context or uncovered truths. Many of them mislead by painting only half the picture.

How many times did we hear about President Joe Biden's advanced age? How many headlines added the notable fact that President Elect Trump is only a few years younger?

How many times did we see the media present Trump's wild, out-of-pocket rambling as sane and sensible? Having written a hefty article debunking one of his speeches line by line, I can speak to how incoherent the man truly is.

We see it happening here in Canada, too. The media reports a bland headline giving only the 'what' of an event, but it goes not one single step further.

That next step is important. To quote from notable journalism Professor Jonathan Foster:

“If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the window and find out which is true.”

This is what we're missing with today's media. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; their need for access is going to get us all killed. It drives them to avoid controversy, not to fight back, and to stick to softball questions that won't raise the hackles of their subjects.

This lukewarm approach to the truth– this barebones reporting bereft of context; it comes at a cost.

This is what brought us to where we are now.

The job of a journalist is to be the bedrock upon which democracy is built. This time, they failed us. They left the keys to the kingdom out in plain view, and a monster has grabbed them up in his tiny hands.

I have my doubts about whether they'll be able to wrest them back again. After all, when liberty is lost, the first thing sacrificed is the freedom of the press.

They probably should have thought about that before we got this far.

Solidarity wins.