What has happened to journalistic integrity? I cannot express how infuriating I find all the lying, half-truths, witholding information and spinning being done by just about everyone in the print and MSM news.
Everyone can have an opinion, and express that opinion in op-eds or blogging. But if someone, anyone, who attended college on the off chance for a future in journalism, I would think that getting to the truth of a story should be the ultimate objective. What happened to the truth?
I start every day checking my favorite sites. Yes, that's right. I don't buy newspapers anymore. I get all the information I need online. My first stop in Huffington Post, which has all the news you really don't need along with opinions. Then I head for what used to be the fun sites-News Hounds, Media Matters and Crooks and Liars, because I enjoyed reading how lots of people share my outrage over what is being said by Rush or Fox News. However, recently my outrage isn't over someone's opinion- it's the reporting of a lie as fact.
At Talking Points Memo, they are reporting that AP- the Associated Press-is falsly reporting the cost of Health Care Reform. That has become my final straw. I thought AP was a serious news gathering organization that offered no opinions and reported the news nuetrally and factually. If that organization is now lying to us, who can we trust to keep us informed?
I have always questioned the intelligence of those who receive their information by only watching FOX. I feel frightened sometimes because the rhetoric coming from that staion is condoning everything that I am against and creating a separation in our country instead of bringing us together. Lying comes so easy to the "reporters" over there and the audience is none the wiser.
I raised my children after Watergate, and have always believed that what brought down Nixon wasn't the actual break-in, but the lies and cover ups that followed. Lying will get you nowhere fast, create mistrust and you will never be believed again. That was my mantra to my children. Purgery is a punishable offense in a court of law. Someone needs to make it a punishable offense in journalism.
Is anyone else totally fed up with the lies?