JOURNALISM IN AMERICA

Around my [virtual] kitchen table, lately - not unlike King Arthur's Camelot with 'knights' of the round table - we continue to appear via Skype...

"We" the opinionated 21st Century 'knights' - who retired to this Arizona 55+ community - are not members of Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" we are their offspring, known statistically as "The Baby Boomers".

Boomer-Babies began arriving in 1946 when Truman was President [after men returned from WWII and women returned from factories] then continued to arrive at the rate of 4+M a year for eighteen years until 1964, when Lindon Johnson became President.

In total 76,000,000 million Boomers invaded this nation causing an an explosion of schools and housing construction through the 50s, 60s and 70s. [Are we still relevant? Well, as of 2019 - 71,200,000M of us were alive and continuing to take up a lot of space.]

We remember when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated - and when, to our horror the same fate ended the life of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. We were the free-love-flower-children of Woodstock, with its marijuana infused music to escape from so many college riots, Watergate, civil injustices, and the Vietnam War. We went to college and university in greater numbers than any generation before us. We navigated a major social shift provided by the 'pill' then marched for the ERA and equal pay for equal work.

These events and hundreds more have since been relegated to the history books our grandchildren read - but we not only lived those events - we remember them vividly.

How you ask, does any of this relate to Journalism In America? It has everything to do with how investigative journalism has become smear journalism - because 'we' remember a time when journalism wasn't theater for ratings.

Perhaps Boomers remember too much...We're an inconvenient witness to too much [recent] history and too much news we recognize as blatantly biased and slanted. The last noble act by the Fourth Estate was Watergate - everything since is in question. In 1971 Judge Gurfein stated, "A cantankerous Press, an obstinate Press, a ubiquitous Press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know."

However, lending an even greater responsibility of the Press itself for their privileged place in our First Amendment - Justice Hugo Black later wrote; "The Press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained Press can effectively expose deception in government."

BUT...WHO CAN EFFECTIVELY EXPOSE - DECEPTION - IN THE PRESS?

Perhaps Ted Koppel meant the Press as Gatekeeper in a good way, but the conduct of print and television media over the last sixty years has ceased to 'serve' "we-the-people" in favor of serving elected people in public office who are mainly - liberal. The last five years so openly hostile and biased as to fervently report [repeatedly] prejudicial and unverified accusations that verge on the criminality of slander. [The most recent example being the attempt to block the appointment of  Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court with no proof - only the accusations of one person whom Kavanaugh barely remembered from his high school years.]

Question: where was CBS, NBC, ABC & CNN during the Benghazi hearings - certainly not airing the intense coverage that Stormy Daniel's got...And where was the New York Times and Washington Post investigative reporting when hundreds of Classified State Department memos, correspondence and emails ended up on the personal lap of convicted sex offender Anthony Weiner? Just asking...and regardless of your political party you might ask too. 

Like Trump - don't like Trump makes no difference...I get that most of his Tweets have been well beyond cringe worthy. Then too his unscripted remarks [like Rocket Man] cause us to shake our heads until we're almost dizzy.  Regardless, it's the Office-Of-The-Presidency and voter's rights - at the heart of our Republic - to which Fourth Estate attacks only work to serve [and advantage] far too many governors like the Democrat Majority of our 116th Congress.

Readers and viewers with the ability for critical thinking can only guess at how that loyalty is made worth while in order for so many radio and television networks or print news associations - to continue to compromise fair and balanced reporting. That hidden 'value' must be significant.

One would expect that not all journalists agree with their editors or publishers or producers. [I didn't when I wrote for the Calgary Sun and lost a job I dearly valued.] But how can we rely on an individual journalist's personal ethics? When NBC viewers listen to the reassuring voice of Lester Holt - whose predecessor was Brian Williams, caught exaggerating his experiences - we wonder. And what happened to CBS Anchor Jeff Glor? Was Glor too conservative then replaced by Nora O'Donnell whose liberal views step in line with executive decision makers?

Of the major television networks FOX is the sole presenter of a more conservative approach than ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or even PBS. Even so, FOX's Tucker Carlson can get carried away and every bit as passionate as CNN's Jake Tapper or Chris Cuomo. However, at least 'the-people' can tune into a more conservative FOX and then one of the other [five] more liberal networks for a differing perspective on the same topic. [Every voter should be sourcing their 'news' from more than one place.]

Going forward...Voters can push for a First Amendment insert in the form of a Standards Clause that: no member of any Press [no print or electronic media group] be allowed to either endorse or oppose any candidate seeking public office - only - report accurate, documented facts.

The Press isn't protected by our First Amendment to function with impunity.

The publishing of the Pentagon Papers was almost compromised by a longstanding social relationship of Washington Post Publisher, Kathrine Graham [and her late husband] and our then Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara [and his wife]. The Press in partnership with Politicians creates a conflict of interest by which objectivity - is 'impossible'...

What media does now is 'feed' the-people 'truth' - as they 'say' it is. Partial information still creates mass ignorance that if the masses knew - they could make alternative decisions. Releasing only some of the information is still a lie - massaged by a Press that only hold people accountable if they're - conservative. 

A healthy economy needs small, medium and large business to support and employs us - both liberal and conservative. A healthy democracy needs a balance of both liberal-social programs and conservative-corporate profits.

At this crossroads, how does America turn present frog-journalism into an ethical-prince that serves the people [those governed] for which it was originally intended? That process must begin from within by principled publishers, editors, producers, field journalists and Press researchers - who truly 'care' about this country - this Republic.  

Next voters can call and/or write their elected representatives both state and federal. Many politicians have been misquoted and/or misrepresented routinely by several journalists. Further "We-the-people" can note companies with advertising that supports each television newscast and buy print space in newspapers then put pressure on those corporations/products insisting that Freedom of the Press as laid out in our First Amendment doesn't mean complete autonomy. Money talks and 'we-the-consumer' have far more clout than we use. 

The Baby Boomers in my neighborhood are at the tip of the Boomer-spear with easily 47,000,000 of our band still contributing to the workforce at a decade or more from retirement. And,  71,000,000 of us make the largest voting group to partner with other younger America voters [who can't possibly fit 'around' my kitchen table even with Zoom]  for changes this 2020 Election [leap] Year. 

We can push hard to make all print and electronic Press accountable replacing innuendo, slander, rumor and barefaced lies in present day journalism - with an honorable [reliable] profession for which the Fourth Estate was intended.

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore was a feature writer and columnist [for a number of magazines and newspapers Memoir From 'There' to 'Here'] who shifted to fiction in 2006 with 16 novels in print. This blog attempts to highlight some of the social issues reaching critical mass in America. The next one is: Awareness In America...

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