Do News Organizations Tell The Truth?
One of the founding principles of
U.S. Constitution is freedom of the press. It is a critical component of our
society. The challenge is, how do you know if the news organization you follow
tells the truth? None of the major new organizations present news blatantly
that is not true. However, what constitutes the truth is the subjective
presentation through the lens in which they view events.
I have watched two different news
organizations one that is considered conservative and another that is
considered liberal presented the exact same topic in vastly different ways. Again,
each is telling the truth as they see it.
I have always wondered what a
journalism degree is from college. You would think English would be an acceptable
degree. Do you really have to get a degree to teach you how to tell the truth?
Every news organization claims to be
objective. But every news organization has people who have subjective views of
events. What words are chosen to describe an event can present a very different
meaning. I don’t think there are any truly objective news organizations. The
bottom line is each are businesses. Each business has to make money. So, each
organization caterers to a group that shares it view of the world. I do not
mean to be cynical. It is just a reality. People point to National Public Radio
as a non-business news organization that supposed to be objective. However, if
you took a poll, conservatives would say it is a liberal and liberals would say
it is objective.
News organizations have been given great
latitude from the courts for protection of what they say. It is extremely hard
to get a conviction against a news organization.
A former college professor of mine
was arrested for child pornography on his work computer at a Department of Defense
agency. It made front page headlines in the Washington Post. It took this
person over a year to exonerate himself and showed that he was framed for this.
It cost him tens of thousands of dollars. It put tremendous strain on his
family. In the end he was found completely innocent. Do you think the
Washington Post put that on the front page? No, it didn’t. So, in order to sell
papers, it puts a sensational news story out there, however, it does nothing to
help repair this man’s reputation. He has no legal recourse against the
Washington Post. So, the Post chose to tell the “truth as they saw it” at the
start of the story but did not tell the truth at the end of it. Would you call that
a news organization with integrity? How are you to believe anything the
Washington Post prints if it only chooses to do the front-page article that
sell the best?
Do news organizations tell the truth?
Yes but………
No comments:
Post a Comment