Are Journalism ethics really a thing?
Yes, maybe, sorta or... not so much
TAT readers,
Happy midweek to everyone.
As always, I began the day sorting through morning news for a topic that inspired me. Today, a short story from the AP/ Associated Press prompted me to write an article that I have touched on occasionally, but never directly. This article will be an arrow aimed at the heart of the matter, the subtle and sustained dishonesty of even the best news sites, for profit. Their steady diet of long term and sustained false narratives, have become the Achilles heel to US voters and by extension, national security.
Wow, this opening paragraph is a lot to digest as a whole, so let’s break it down in today’s article, via the three sections below:
The problem
The background
Summary
The Problem
The precise problem is the absence of or dishonesty about how media “frames” their reporting of so-called, “political” news. Suggesting that what passes as today’s political landscape, is simply about politics varies between subtle dishonesty to overtly so. The truth is that politics are only one element, and not the primary element, relative to the most acute threat facing our nation. The issue is really about power and for what purpose. Is the power to promote the American values that we hold dear, or is it simply for power for dangerous and immoral purposes? No matter how good a reporter is, the Editors, beholden to ad revenues and investors, struggle to tell American the truth, and nothing but the truth.
The Background
As noted, I have touched on some of the issues surrounding mainstream media and mostly those “reporting the news” in past articles. They are in the links below. Today though, is a bit deeper look at the overt threat that their reporting sustains in US and especially, Western media.
US media, please stop calling the MAGA crowd conservatives (truthaboutthreats.com)
Revisiting the topic of Media, still calling the current version of the GOP… “conservative” (truthaboutthreats.com)
Let's get this straight about Trump's indictment, before news media screws it up... again. (truthaboutthreats.com)
“If it bleeds, it leads” - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)
Mainstream news outlets are borderline antisemitic in their reporting about the war in Gaza. (truthaboutthreats.com)
FOX NEWS is a national security threat. - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)
Has all media, good and bad, forgotten how to report with facts and context? (truthaboutthreats.com)
Freedom of the Press is our right, but we should expect truth, not agendas that kill human beings. (truthaboutthreats.com)
What the hell is wrong with almost all media reporting on the conflict in Gaza and ignoring the brutality in Ukraine and other nations? (truthaboutthreats.com)
I derive no satisfaction from this, "I told you so." (truthaboutthreats.com)
Now let’s look at the heart of our reporting dishonesty. Media and reporting have always been used for influence, more often than not, dishonestly. In fact, The US “Yellow Journalism” phase was mostly created by a couple of notable newspaper moguls vying for ad revenue, facts be damned. Yes, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolf Hearst, were every bit as deceitful as 90% of right-wing media is in the Trump era. Excellent reporting is a treasure, and I am grateful for the number of first-rate reporters that I have come to know over the years. Those ethical and remarkable reporters though are not the problem, it is those who operate on marginal or fully vacant moral backbones. This is especially true in an age where newspapers and other reporting is disappearing as fast as countless endangered species. Even now, there are very large layoffs at some of our nation’s best traditional newspapers and online media.
Much of our diminished decline in journalistic standards is due to the absence of or significantly diminished revenue, in an industry that once reaped mouth-watering profits. Of course, like most issues, they typically are far more complex than any single factor, however profitability is a major factor regarding the decline of reporting. Another is that in trying to remain solvent, formerly good reporting now must compete with the FOX News type cable news which is solely profit driven entertainment. They claim to be a news service however, I don’t know of a serious media analyst, that considers them “news.” As that a core element of my professional focus is influence, I categorize FOX News exclusively, as a high-profile, anti-US values, propaganda site. Case closed.
In my professional assessment, US democracy and our constitution, are at the most risk since the Civil War. It is important to understand here, that most of the same rhetoric pushed by media, reflect the same or similar narratives as the pre-war era and the duration of the war. Even worse, is that this context is nearly always missing from alleged, “reporting.” We saw these again during the “Civil Rights” era and now there is not only a resurgence, but a resurgence on steroids. To make matters worse, now Russian influence operations are so deeply embedded in MAGA ideology that such rhetoric constitutes a primary and acute, national security threat.
"A lot of people have heard of the caning of Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber in 1856, but you found many more examples. I found roughly 70 violent incidents in the 30 years before the Civil War—and very often the incidents featured a Southerner trying to intimidate a Northerner into compliance. It’s all hidden between the lines in the Congressional record; it might say “the conversation became unpleasantly personal.” That meant duel challenges, shoving, pulling guns and knives. In 1858, South Carolina representative Laurence Keitt started trouble with Pennsylvania's Galusha Grow. It turned into a mass brawl between Southerners and Northerners in the House." - Before the Civil War, Congress Was a Hotbed of Violence - A new book from historian Joanne Freeman chronicles the viciousness with which elected officials treated each other. - Smithsonian Magazine - Anna Diamond - Reporter - September 2018
More background on Civil War rhetoric and narratives:
A Dissertation by REBECCA BRIDGES WATTS
etd-tamu-2003C-SCOM-Watts-1.pdf
Atchison, R. Jarrod A War of Words: The Rhetorical Leadership of Jefferson Davis. University of Alabama Press, $39.91 ISBN 817319409
A review by, Sacher, John Fall 2017
Voices in the Storm, Confederate Rhetoric, 1861-1865
Karen Elizabeth Fritz
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
1995
While that the Southern Civil War era rhetoric largely transferred over to the Civil Rights era, there is no time today to go into this in-depth. For those interested, the two references below should be of interest:
Jfk Civil Rights Address Rhetorical Analysis Essay | ipl.org
The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement in the Early Sixties (In-Person) | JFK Library
Under the heading of “use your skills for good, not evil,” we can see that with the Civil War, Pulitzer and Hearst’s Yellow Journalism and the Civil Rights era, that the narratives and interactive narratives within, share much of today’s MAGA vs. True American values, media content, offered nearly always, without context.
My single most acute grievance with today’s alleged news media, is that not only do they sustain these dangerous narratives, often by omission, but that they refuse to accurately report the news by providing the most remote context. This, as was noted at the beginning, is done in order to just like Pulitzer and Hearst, drive revenue and investment.
Repeating the rhetoric of the un-American MAGA crowd, is no different than failing to report the radical, unconstitutional rhetoric of Jefferson Davis, pre-during and to some extent, post-Civil War. Like Davis, there is a lot of unethical rationalization and justification, while concurrently and willfully refusing to add simple fact-checks and explanations along the way. A perfect example is the Texas 2022 Midterm Platform that couches several unconstitutional agenda items but is promoted as “conservative.”
My dishonest Congressman here in TX 23, Tony Gonzalez, habitually presents himself as a “conservative” while simultaneously lying to us constituents or misleading with far-right rhetoric. His border security campaign TV ads, which run endlessly on local TV is beyond dishonest. That Tony Gonzalez can afford these seemingly endless and nauseating ads, is his value to the GOP of being a “border congressman” from TX, not for his principled conservatism. In the coming months I will be writing a series of articles about Tony and his overt dishonesty. I do this not because I back another party, but because someone must tell our district the truth and it sure as hell isn’t going to be Tony, or the Republican Party of Texas.
There simply is no GOP agenda nationally, that represents true conservative values. To be frank, not one single state GOP organization even comes close. This doesn’t make the left always right, but at least they are representing who they are from a traditional party perspective. The GOP, now under the guidance of former traitor-in-chief Trump has fully distanced themselves from any semblance of true principled conservatism. I wrote an entire piece a couple of months ago, comparing the TX far-right GOP Midterm Platform to President Eisenhower’s “principled conservatism, from his 1956 GOP, Presidential Platform.
Why isn’t the media reporting on this? As has been discussed throughout, they do it for ad revenue and investment. Tragically now, much of that investment comes from nefarious sources covertly representing both adversaries and nations that do not represent US values… at all. Russia, China, The Gulf States, India etc. have extremely large interests in US media.
When I first began TAT, I always recommended what I called, the big four for news reporting; Reuters, The AP/ Associated Press, USA TODAY and the BBC. After their insulting, overtly dishonest reporting on the war in Gaza, I cast all aside but USA TODAY. I have since reclaimed the AP due to the attempt to restore their dignity. Anyway, I don’t see it even on the horizon, for a very long time, if ever.
Summary
Now, as I would imagine that most would appreciate, let’s bring this all together in a summary, that is far shorter and more succinct than the history lessons above.
Above we’ve witness just how pervasive the media can be during some of the most trying periods of US history. We’ve seen how some of the most influential oligarchs of their day wielded reporting like a club, to achieve what made them more profits and by extension, more power over the pocketbooks of citizens, politicians and in fact, nations. Hearst and Pulitzer’s Yellow Journalism is credited by most historians, with getting the US into the Spanish-American War.
Our second presidential election that came down to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was one our nation’s worst as it pertains to what today is known as, “fake news.” The Civil War was fueled by passionate newspapers above and below the Mason-Dixon line, that had been inciting one side or the other since at least the 1830s. These are simply some examples and as goes the quote, “who doesn’t read history is doomed to repeat it” we are at such a stage again in our nation’s history.
What is painfully dangerous now, is that formerly credible news sites use shaded honesty or outright false narratives to drive revenue. Nothing makes money more than a hotly contested race, game, match or other type of competition. To drive readership/ hence revenue, media believes in creating such competition, sometimes out of whole cloth. Hearst and Pulitzer are again, exhibit A.
When citizens buy into such competition, it nearly always has a negative impact. This ranges from being discriminated against, violence and even war. In this case, the portrayal of Hitler, in his early years, post-putsch he was portrayed as a politician with nationalist fervor. Overcoming Germany’s shame after WW I and harsh post Versailles Treaty by the Allies, Hitler played into restoring the honor of the Fatherland, even if that restored honor was mostly to an aberrant, immoral ideology. Trump with MAGA playing the role of Hitler’s Brown Shirts and Third Reich, does the same. His and MAGA’s rhetoric are so eerily similar to Hitler’s that it would be impossible for even casual historians to not see it. Instead of Goebbels, Trump has the GOP and the overt support from Putin, ever since roughly the 2012/13-time frame.
Just as the news in Germany during the mid to late 1930s, US news, ridiculously reports on Trump and MAGA as “conservatives.” How irresponsible but pragmatic for them, since this is precisely the type of “fake news” that drives revenue. They should have known the inherent danger in “shading the truth” and then routinely lying about it, especially after January 6th.
The fallacy that FOX, NewsMax, Breitbart and the endless stream of far-right, pro-Russian media sites are conservative is so absurd as to be laughable. Still, mainstream and formerly credible reporting still wields the term “conservative” in order to feather their wallets. Falsely labeling today’s GOP as conservative is beyond absurd and yes… even good reporting becomes dangerously flawed by the editors feeding the revenue beasts that call man-eating tigers, kittens, for profit.
Still, most media refuses during an election year to faithfully report on the overt connections between Trump, MAGA, the GOP and Putin. Russian ideology is largely synonymous with what serves as Republican ideology these days. This means that they are turning a blind eye to a severe national security threat all to build profit lines. The first time in US history that Americans have not come together to fight an outside enemy, was the 2016 election and this continues through quite literally, today.
When exactly do editors, board members and investors say, “enough is enough?” When do they say that this could undermine or brutally murder American democracy? Here in Texas, like in most so-called, “red states,” it has already happened.
The examples are not only high-profile but a constant stream of propaganda spewing from the mouths of folks like our Governor, Lt. Gov, AG, the Texas Legislature and heaven knows how many fake conservative movements, faux media etc., all embraced by the primary donors to campaigns, like big oil. Oligarchy, the theocracy of White Christian Nationalism are as un-American as it gets, yet Tx Republicans, brainwashed by thirty years of FOX and their ilk, have now been conditioned to belief that they are truly patriotic, conservative Americans. Even a cursory look at their ideology and a third-grade education in history would show the exact opposite.
Here’s a challenge to those media sources that believe themselves credible; Every time you write the word “conservative,” just ask yourself and fire up your laptop and see if what you are writing about is 2024 BS conservatism, or the real deal, based on President Eisenhower’s 1956 platform. Even the Reagan and H.W. Bush presidencies were closer and where the hell are the voices from those eras? When someone declares themselves to be well-informed, the MAGA crowd would always say yes but NEVER have a credible source. If they claim to be conservative, ask them based on what? If they can’t or won’t tell you, then report the truth. They are extremists, not conservatives.
I’ll conclude today’s piece by saying, it is NOT the medias’ entire fault. They are merely pandering dishonestly to profits. American citizens have what our founders saw as a responsibility of citizenship, to be well and accurately informed. Then there are the tacit propagandists disseminating fake patriotism for profit, like FOX and their fellow types.
My core specialty is narrative as the core of influence. Narratives represent meaning, not necessarily truth. Once established, they are exceptionally difficult to dislodge, and no amount of fact-checking will do the job. They only way to dislodge narratives is with stronger ones, campaigned with by those who understand how they work. The US national security community is mostly clueless about this, so much of what is required will fall to the tasks of ethical journalists and regular, everyday citizens who will stand up and be counted. Narratives require narrators. At this stage of my life,
I would prefer to not have to narrate truth and simply spoil grandchildren, explore our beautiful nation and world and train/ mentor professionals in my fields. This is not possible while that most mainstream media sits on their collective duffs and refuses to be counted. As a dear friend and colleague, Dr. Ajit Maan, the CEO of our Think/ Do Tank, likes to say, “we are not in conflict over information but the meaning of information.” If journalists don’t tell the truth and nothing but the truth, we are left with sterile and dangerous consumers who are mostly already addicted to their most prevalent news “narrators.” Is adding the proper context and using language honestly really that hard for newsroom editors of repute? It would seem so.
We all have a role to play living in a democracy. I like to say that” democracy is a team sport.” It’s about time that news, citizens and politicians encouraged this, and from the frame of real American values, not what people claim. I also am passionate about ensuring that when our grandchildren are my age, that the democratic republic that our founders gifted us, is still in existence. In order to do this, we all must not only be on the team, but play in the game by the rules in our constitution, not the made-up constitutional BS from today’s MAGA controlled, GOP. There is not one thing truly American about MAGA, with the exception of the flags that they like to wave in everyone’s face but have no clue about what it stands for.