Just a brief comment here. Television journalist Shep Smith, who had long been a voice of reason in the conspiracy-theory world of Fox News, spoke at the International Press Freedom Awards. He didn’t call out anyone in particular, but he noted that “Intimidation and vilification of the press is now a global phenomenon. We don’t have to look far for evidence of that.”
President Trump calls the press the “enemy of the people” precisely because he fears truth. Indeed, we live in an era where the president of the United States calls any accurate news report about him “fake news.” In his speech, Smith reminded us that fake news is actually something else. As autocrats and dictators spread propaganda to reinforce their quest for illicit power, Smith pointed out that “They flood the world of information with garbage and lies, masquerading as news. There’s a phrase for that.” He explained that accurate and complete reporting is not something that is good just for one political party and it is not just the province of one perspective: “But press freedom is not the preserve of one political group or one political party. It’s a value embedded in our very foundational documents. Journalists need to join hands to defend it.”
Smith teaches us an important lesson. A free society requires a free flow of information. Corrupt people have come to dominate social media; my own social media feed is full of posts from obvious bots and trolls. And to give a speech at an important event is one good way for Smith to spread his critical message.
Too often, we think that a news report is accurate if it tells us what we want to hear. Good reporters, however, will tell the truth even if the readers don’t want to hear it. If we can’t handle the truth, we can't handle living in a republic. I'll take it a step farther: United States citizens who can’t handle truth have no business calling themselves patriots.
And, to pass on a lesson from my fifth-grade teacher, a conservative Republican named Mrs. Dixon, we need to get our information from more than one source and to seek out different points of view. Otherwise, we just show propaganda artists that we have stuck a target onto our own backs.
No comments:
Post a Comment