There’s no one left to believe anymore. Legacy media is dying, either from neglect or oligarchical intent, social media is awash in unqualified opinions and state-sponsored misinformation, and chatbots are spouting nonsense to anyone dumb enough to listen. Journalism is in a state of free fall, and there seems to be no end in sight.
It’s becoming harder and harder to find reliable sources of information on even the most basic news of the day. There are literally thousands of outlets that repackage the news, from television shows and news magazines, to websites and blogs (including this one), but very few organizations that are actually doing any first-hand reporting. Our sense of reality, once shaped by legacy media, is now subject to the biases of some schmuck with a newsletter, or a comedian with a YouTube channel.
I don’t believe there’s any such thing as objective journalism. Reality is subjective as it is, so why would we ever believe that a journalist is going to leave all their experience and knowledge at the door? Of course, they’re not. This is not the same thing as entering into it with a political agenda. That’s simply public relations, or worse, propaganda, and there’s certainly plenty of that going around. Fox News isn’t even pretending to be objective, let alone represent journalism. It’s a current events clown show, much like The Daily Show or late night television, except Fox pretends to be important.
The problem, of course, is that a significant portion of Americans get their news from these entertainment platforms that only superficially cover the news. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a hairdo spouting partisan talking points, or a comedian trying to get a laugh. It’s not serious and no one should take them as such.
I don’t have an answer to this crisis. I don’t think anyone does. I do have one idea that I think would help, even though it wouldn’t solve everything. I would like to see more of the author in the piece, not less. There are plenty of big names out there and we generally know where they stand, but often I’m reading the work of someone and I don’t know if they’re trustworthy or not. We’ve lost all the gatekeepers and now it’s just a free for all.
I never bought this fair and balanced crap, and it doesn’t matter who was shilling for it. I want to know what your biases are up front so I know how to take what you’re selling. I’d rather hear from Hunter S. Thompson than Edward R. Murrow. Show me your flavor of crazy, and let me work it out from there.
