Fake News and Poor Journalism

In a room with hundreds of journalists from all over the country, one of the conference’s keynote speakers looked at the outstanding professionals he was sharing the stage with and said, “Here they are – outstandingly smart and educated people, and they call their work ‘fake news.’”

    The comment received sad giggles from the audience, as many journalists feel that the humble job they do is undermined.

    Let me tell you something about journalism – it is far from an easy choice of professions. In general, a reporter’s work is challenging and not very well paid. Our mistakes are almost always public and not so well-received. We are not always welcomed and sometimes we get treated like enemies while just trying to do our job. I believe that journalism is a profession you pick because you just cannot resist your desire to find truth and tell it to everyone else.

    Now, being a journalist is even more challenging because some of the best reporting is called “fake news” every time the truth is inconvenient.

    “Bad government tries to present press as opposition, and in doing so undermine the freedom of speech,” said Monika Bauerlein, CEO of Mother Jones. “It is systematic, and Trump’s administration is not the first one, Bauerlein pointed out.”

    When people choose to avoid objective reporting on the issue and accept “alternative facts” as legitimate proof, one fairy of quality journalism dies somewhere in the world. By rejecting the idea that truth is generally determined through objective methods, people make the concept of truth itself blurry and less significant. This is when low standards allow less objective journalists to write using alternative and convenient facts, spreading them even further. And then, sadly, fake news and facts, turned upside down, become many people’s truth.

    A while ago I had a very interesting conversation with a staff member at Concord. This person was very inspired by Trump’s plan to cancel the J-1 visa and tried to get me, as an international student (even though I have nothing to do with this visa type), excited about it. It would benefit me a great deal, the person explained referring to “facts” from some article. Not to get into too much detail, the promised “benefits” did not match the way the visa worked.

    So, what can be done? Believing every piece of journalism you read out of respect for the profession is hardly a solution (quite the opposite, actually). Yet, one can and should learn to separate bad journalism and alternative facts from one another, and then stick with the outlets which over time prove their trustworthiness. It can be a challenging task, as alternative facts are presented as ultimate truth by some or simply not compared to the real data and reported as quotes by others.

Always look at several sources and compare the data and resist rejecting unpleasant and inconvenient information. When it comes to facts, you should not choose the ones you like, and do not say “fake news” to the ones you are not in favor of. Today’s current bipolar truth situation is a mess, but regarding journalists as enemies will only worsen the problem. I believe that supporting and protecting good journalism is one of the key solutions to making the public dialogue more truthful and objective.