The Death of American Journalism

What has happened to the ethics and integrity of American journalism? While the times of picking up a newspaper are long gone, it paves the way for the use of content on our tablets and mobile devices. There’s no reason we should not demand the best and highest quality of honest and reliable information provided to us in a balanced approach to news and information. Are we not the creative and innovative thinkers of  the  modern world today? Why must the media get to take that entitlement from us, the people in their subjective rather than objective views? After all, are journalists paid to report the truth with well-checked facts, or rumor mongering and gossip?

With the President’s regular remarks of “Fake News,” it is vital to take a moment and assess the very amendment, which presented journalists the right to publish. According to the First Amendment, all citizens have the right to free speech. However, journalists also bow to represent the truth objectively – recently the mainstream majority is ignoring the latter.  We are witnessing a coup unlike nothing we have ever seen in the United States. The President of the United States  is being ambushed  by a group of ignorant, uninformed amateurs being led by the extreme radical establishment who are bent on overthrowing our democracy.

For the past 15 years, journalism has observed a sudden change, thanks to social media as well as the overpowering need to endorse one philosophy over another. Although journalism has widely transformed from print to digital, there are two things, which must remain steadfast. These are journalistic integrity and ethical decision-making. A journalist job is strictly to report the news as they see it, honestly, uncensored and free of their opinions.

However, 62% of Americans claimed that the mainstream media favors a specific political party, according to the previous poll conducted by Gallup. That is up about 50% in the past few years. In addition, 64% claim the media favors the extreme left of center Democratic Party leaning so far in to the Socialist collective.

Apart from that, the trust in the media today has collapsed in America. That is mainly because of insufficient nonpartisan, neutral reporting, which is presented by dozens of news organizations, which is now become gossip, scandalous, nonsensical, front-page tabloid news.  These cases were prevalent throughout the 2016 presidential election and had sustained this within the initial nine months of the Trump administration. Let us ask ourselves, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media–such as newspapers, TV and radio, when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly: a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all, most Americans say none at all!

Restoring public trust we will never see again, the standard for journalism of the public appears to have lessened due to the massive number of social media, You Tubers, and blogs and I imagine the so-called “Fake” news must compete and they have become marginalized. While a person must anticipate an opinion on commentary sheets, those opinion-driven news stories must not be the standard for mainstream media. The weight on mainstream media institutions is twofold: serving as a model for many journalism intellectuals and following their commitment to journalistic integrity.

Spin, hidden agendas, and bias come across as the primary reasons for lack of trust in the media. It also includes the perceived decline in journalistic standards driven by higher competition and best in standards achieved on a few cable networks that report fair and balanced news. Such concerns are strongest with the younger generation where these media outlets are vying for their attention using tawdry sensationalism. Trust in the news that people find in social media is lower, but the same trends are at play.

No one can doubt the country is now experiencing a precipice in media. The press should now decide if they would continue the journey of biased “FAKE”  reporting or go back to the fundamentals of journalism.