Zombies On the Beat - Journalistic Integrity Lost

 “Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty.” –Jean de la Bruyere

Have you ever wondered why your local paper, nightly news or online media outlets all have the same news reports? Have you ever wondered why they never have anything new, or fresh to report? Of course, it all is made to seem like the latest, greatest scoop, but it is generally repackaged opinion and the same stale diatribe they have been peddling for years. Has your favorite reporter seemed to have gone rogue about politics, the economy, or even about local issues? Well you're not alone in your dismay over how the news media chooses to report information. The reason is: they have become nothing more than Zombies with a pen.

"The advertisements are the most truthful part of a newspaper." - Thomas Jefferson

One has to wonder why, all of a sudden, journalists have lost all perspective of their craft. Is it because their editors are driving them to repeat the same information found in other stations’ reports? Or is it because they have lost the ability to dissect issues and find the truth for their viewers? Or have they just become too lazy to do their investigative journalistic homework? Is it because they've become complacent and so hungry for work that they have succumbed to the evils within the industry that will pay anything for a hastily constructed piece merely designed to help them promote their original mission statement? The actual answer is all of the above.

We have all seen the evidence of journalists who have lost their integrity. As we sit down to read the paper, or watch our evening news, these soul-less journalists who went through the academic mill and graduated with like minded political ideologies ready to hit the streets looking for that perfect story end up telling us precisely what the higher-ups want us to hear. Do today’s social investigators follow the money trail to find who really benefits? Often, they settle for the money that flows their way while placing the blinders on themselves and their consumers. How can we detect the journalists with no integrity? Just Google any issue they're writing about, and you'll find close to fifty articles with the same content as theirs. If a writer uses the same information produced from another article, they are plagiarists with no integrity who have no regard for the other writer. In the university system, they are chewed up and spit out with an eternal black mark on their record and character. But in the halls of today’s journalism, they are celebrated as ‘out-of-the-box thinkers.’ This is what the media claims is true journalism. To us, it is blatant laziness which is perpetuated by the news media because they continue to accept shabby work from college graduates claiming to be journalists. There is nothing new about the news today, it was all repeated and repackaged from an hour ago.

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” –King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

Today, we have journalists who would rather see their name in bold print under the title of their piece as often as they can. They write short articles with little to no analysis, rather than do the hard research to uncover the real evidence of danger, corruption, political intrigue, or criminal activity. Instead of becoming a hero to society, they are complicit in allowing social ills to thrive without detection or attention. They often regurgitate the same information found in another writer's article, or they fail to check their sources altogether. As we pointed out in our last piece, "GuiltDetermined by Robots," a writer for the University of Phoenix online newspaper didn't do effective research on their chosen subject matter. Instead, the writer used material sources provided by the very company she was writing about. That is not journalism, that's propaganda perpetuated by an institution trying to promote a single company. Our question to the University of Phoenix is simple: Did you pay this “journalist” to write that piece, or did the money come directly from iParadigm, LLC to protect their business interest? When journalists resort to bias reporting, the idyllic utopia of free speech has just been garroted.  This is not only dangerous to the realm of journalism, it is effectively being promoted into all aspects of society and discourse through this blemished medium. Does this sound familiar? It should, because it all boils down to what is taught in college: regurgitate information, regurgitate opinion, regurgitate thought. Just be sure not to plagiarize when you regurgitate.

"Franklin is one of the first American publishers to understand that freedom of the press and tolerance are part of what it is to be a newspaper editor, and what it is to be a printer. And part of the genius of America is that we're open in our discourse."  - Walter Issacson

Unfortunately, today's journalists have lost their integrity as writers. The blame should be shared by the editors and media moguls alike. Instead of reporting the news, today’s media regurgitates what others have written. Instead of using real journalists as inspiration, such as John Zenger and Ben Franklin (1700s); Elijah Lovejoy, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Nellie Bly (1800s-1900s); Winchell (1940-70), Morrow (1950-70), Woodward & Bernstein (1970s), Katherine Graham (1938-2001), Tim Russert (1990-2008), and so many others from the past, they follow the footsteps of media conglomerates more interested in the ‘quick fix’ than true investigative reporting. They understand that the ‘quick fix’ of social conjecture will leave the consumer craving more, knowing there was more implied in the promo than delivered in the actual piece, yet wholly unaware that today’s media will never satisfy the consumer’s true hunger for reasoned thought and accurate information.

"One should perform his deeds for the benefit of mankind with an unbiased approach because bias gives birth to evil, which creates thousands of obstacles in our path." –Rig Veda

All media is bias, just as all facets of our lives exist with some stain of bias. But to leave the American consumer ill fed and malnourished in thought is just as much an affront to freedom as overt tyranny can be. American media consumers deserve better. It is time that they demand better. Those attracted to the media world generally assert their benefits to society. It is time that they live up to the promises of their profession, and stop being Zombies with a pen.