I am a news junky. I like to read news reports to get informed about issues that are constantly debated in any democratic society. Though I prefer non-partisan, investigative and detailed reporting however such news reports are rare these days.
In a recent opinion article Emmy-winning investigative journalist and author Sharyl Attkisson asks whether current news reporting is journalism or partisanship? She writes “too often, many in my industry have revealed themselves as little more than propaganda tools for dueling political sides, no longer reporting the way journalists once did’.
To do this, too many of us have abandoned basic tenets of journalism. We ignore the suspicious timing of the handout “leaks” or scandals — as if nobody notices. We fail to explore or disclose sources’ motivations or conflicts of interest — as if nobody wonders about them. We don’t even pretend to assess the true news value of the “bombshell.” We’re simply happy to be of service to the propagandists; we invite them to use us, and our superiors reward us with admiration. Many of our peers either repeat the reporting, seek to confirm it using equally dubious methods, or discredit it. Rarely do we step back and consider that the whole drama is being orchestrated by political puppet-masters who count their successes by the number of news stories they generate.
Sharyl Attkisson in the Hill Blog
In another opinion article, an award-winning media executive, producer and journalist Joe Ferullo writes that today’s journalism is “advocacy journalism”.
Today’s advocacy is something different — focused more on politics, party, culture and division. In this brand of advocacy journalism, reporting feels predetermined: Story angles seem to check boxes on that “agenda” cited in recent polling; who the heroes and villains are depends on which news outlet you’re consuming. [..] The only antidote to this is heightened media literacy. News consumers need to be skeptical even of the journalism that reinforces their world view — and very skeptical if they are fed nothing but stories that confirm their opinions.
Joe Ferullo in the Hill Blog
Ferullo adds further “Mainstream news once depended on advertisers for survival. Those advertisers by and large hate taking sides, which encouraged news objectivity as a sure path to profits. But when you ask a reader or viewer to shell out cash to subscribe, they apparently expect more in return than your basic who-what-when-where-why reporting.”