Journalists are killing journalism — and the saddest part is that they know it.
In fact, their goal seems to be the destruction of the very profession they claim to hold so dear.
For decades now, intellects have pondered if the creation of the internet (many thanks to Al Gore) has denigrated the thoughtful and balanced journalism we once expected from news outlets.
In 2009, The Atlantic ran a piece titled, “Is The Internet Killing Journalism?” The once-esteemed publication that has since become synonymous with anonymous sources, explained that, “It (the internet) promotes sensationalism and trains people to consume news in smaller, bite-sized pieces.
It makes sense that the internet would bear some of the blame for the downfall in the quality of today’s news. The speed at which pieces are rushed out is definitely not helping matters. When activists looking for their moment in the sun are thirsty for clicks and retweets, their goals quickly shift from being right to being first.
However, the internet merely weakened journalism. The real fatal blow came at the hands, and keyboards, of our media. Don’t let them fool you: There is a cleverness in their sloppiness.
After the 100th “Even we make mistakes” statement from the so-called renowned news companies — doubting their intentions does not mean you are cynical, it means you are sane.
It isn’t merely the mistakes and updates and corrections that should outrage the consumers — it’s the unapologetic nature in which they are committed.
In March, when a mass shooting occurred at a grocery store in Colorado, the blue checkmarks had no issue wildly speculating about the race of the gunman. Deadspin writer and editor Julie DiCaro, for example, tweeted, “Extremely tired of people’s lives depending on whether a white man with an AR-15 is having a good day or not.”
Turns out the shooter was Middle Eastern, but that hasn’t stopped Julie’s oopsie from receiving more than 222,000 likes and 56,000 retweets. She was so unfazed by her own stupidity that she didn’t even bother deleting the tweet.
Coincidentally, DiCaro was one of several reporters and editors to make that very same assumption about the shooter. I’m sure they all learned their lesson and won’t rush to judgement ever again … until next time, of course.
The narrative-shapers have always been racing to get their headlines out fast. However, the Trump era sparked something far more nefarious. The press’s urgency was not due to wanting to beat each other to the punch. Instead, they wanted to beat the facts to the punch.
When the mainstream media got wind of the latest police shooting in Columbus, Ohio — they didn’t waste a minute. After all, as CNN’s Charlie Chester told his Tinder date, “fear sells.”
There was one problem, though. The body cam footage proved to be less than ideal for the left’s narrative. Yes, it showed a white cop shooting a Black teenager, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant. But it also showed Bryant wielding a large knife against another teenager, who she was attempting to stab. There is a very reasonable argument to be made that the officer saved the life of the other woman in the video.
Fear not! That’s nothing a little editing can’t fix. NBC News, perhaps inspired by the crafty producers at “60 Minutes,” decided to deceptively cut the footage that showed Bryant holding the knife from their produced news package. It was not that NBC didn’t have the correct intel or that they were too impatient to wait for more information. On the contrary, they actively hid the most important piece of information they had, in the hopes that they could stir up outrage in their viewers.
How short-lived their fake news would be didn’t concern Lester Holt or his Peacock colleagues. They just wanted it out there.
The propagandists and storytellers who wax poetically about the importance of “truth” and “facts” are shameless. It isn’t that they stopped caring about being right because they want to be first. Rather, they stopped caring about being right because they want to be wrong. The expression goes that the devil is in the details.
Well, if you find yourself reading the agitprop in the Bezos Post or the Gray Lady, just remember this: the real story — the inconvenient truth — will only be found in the forthcoming correction.