Feeling betrayed by "journalists"

Next week I will delve into the trials of international "hot spot" journalism and the duty that some have taken on to protect journalists and journalism of the freedom of the press/freedom of speech variety. This week however I will get off my back my peed-off-ness at today's "journalists," those comfy cozy individuals who compromise the truth--the truth that is the reason for a journalist's existence --that truth, not the 'what the power elites sees as "fit to print" ' variety.

Peed-off? Journalism means telling the who-what-when-how-why-where of the story. Fortunately, "investigative journalists", even those with an agenda who could range from the John Stossels (who the likes of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting would rather see in another profession) to the Geraldo Riveras (who make up sensational stuff for money and fame), usually get at least some of the truth and blaze a trail for those with more integrity and no agenda.

Then you have a few good foreign correspondents and freelancer types, those who don't merely give the official line, some of whom risk their freedom or lives to tell what's happening in the world's hot spots.

Perhaps most of today's journalists got into the field out of idealism or advocacy (why is it today's "advocates" tend to be left-wing ideologues?), but they wind up being "lapdogs" of the power elites (or outright liars of the sensationalist-alternative media type, who, no doubt, pass on misinformation handed to them by agents of the power elites; the "Spotlight" right-wing newspaper is a classic example of this). They report what they are told and tell it to the lowest common denominator, the mass mentality and sixth grade reading level. One sentence paragraphs--the print version of the ten second sound-bite. I could name a few reporters and editors who continuously use the "opposition was unavailable for comment" line (my own local newspaper publisher, for instance). And I am particularly peeved at those reporting on the Macedonia situation who, the way they tell it, think Macedonians ought to literally hand over that country to an Albanian minority (now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Albanians, but heck, what those folks ought to be doing is calling for a better life in Albania, their homeland, instead of trying to dismember other nations. They ought to be trying to get NATO to help them make Albania something other than the hellhole it is, instead of getting NATO to allow the kind of ethnic cleansing the KLA handed the Serb minority in Kosovo, and the NLA could hand Macedonians in Macedonia.). Thus, journalists who "advocate" instead of tell the truth are not only not doing their jobs, they are being irresponsible at best and liars at worst. So-called journalists on the right as well as the left are guilty of this, online and off-line. And it gets worse--watchdogs like FAIR and the conservative Media Research Center are guilty of this agenda-mongering as well.

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