I think it a mistake to see the media as responsible for simply reporting the news accurately. Yes, that is one obvious function. But, being a democracy’s watchdog has always been another important responsibility of journalism. Certainly, that is the case in the United States.
I think our media does us a service by trying to influence us to see things as they see them. That's the function of the media, the press, in its role as a democracy's watchdog. If one media outlet, Fox, serves to a large degree as the compliant propaganda organ for a corrupt administration, then I want an adversarial press to balance that compliance by shining a spotlight on all that is wrong with this administration. I want that perspective out there for the voting public to understand and consider.
Imagine if our entire institution of the press, both print and broadcast, were always compliant with government. Never examining government officials too closely. Only praising our leaders. Turning a blind eye to scandals. Turning a blind eye to corruption. In the Trump era, specifically, do we really want all media outlets, all broadcast and print journalists, to use Fox News as the template for how they report on the Trump administration?
Are we familiar with the Joseph McCarthy era, and his Red scare witch hunt? There was one broadcast journalist in particular, universally admired by Americans for his integrity. In the midst of McCarthy’s crusade against what he saw as communist sympathizers in America, it was that broadcast journalist, Edward R. Murrow, who chose to go beyond simply reporting the news. He went after McCarthy directly, and all Americans can be grateful that he did. He demonstrated the role of the press as watchdog in a democracy as well as any journalist in American history. Nobody is really doing what he did these days. The news is treated as entertainment by those who bring us the news. They would rather hang on Trump's every tweet, every briefing, and flip out over every dumb statement, than speak directly to the American people, as Edward R. Murrow did.
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/Murrowvs.McCarthyism.asp
The role of a free press in America is to do more than report factual news. Their role includes speaking truth to power. It includes being an adversarial press, if that position is called for. Never should we wish to have only compliant news organs. When that is the case, truth is never spoken to power. At least not by our press.
A very brief excerpt from the night Edward R. Murrow became the last straw and helped America turn its back at last, and reject the demagoguery of Joseph McCarthy...
THIS is a good and proper role of a free press!!
