This is Lent, and I must confess my sin. I
confess that I have not been fair to the news media. I have not gone so far as
to call them “the enemy of the people” like President Trump or “the drive-by
media” like Rush Limbaugh, but my opinion of them has not been kind. In fact I
have been shunning the television news for the last few months. Today I repent.
It is not that the evening news has changed. It is still as
sensationalized and partisan as ever. It still attempts to scare the living
daylights out of its viewers. The three old mainstream networks are so partisan
that they make me cringe. News anchors can barely contain their contempt for
any official of the Trump administration that they interview. Just turn off the
volume and watch their facial expressions, and you will see that I mean. Body
language speaks louder than words.
On the other end of the spectrum, Fox News has become
nothing more than the Republican Ministry of Propaganda. They specialize in ridicule
and disinformation. Conservative talk radio is even worse. I was listening to a
Christian radio channel the other day while driving, and I could not believe
the misinformation they were spouting. What ever happened to “Thou shalt not
bear false witness”?
I never assume that anything I hear or read in the news is
true. That is why I am in the habit of testing anything that seems questionable
by verifying it. No alternative facts or fake news for me. If you are not in
the habit of checking the accuracy of your news sources, here is a link
to the top ten sites to get you started.
You can probably already tell from my remarks that I still
harbor some ill will for the national news media – both on the right and left. But
the coronavirus pandemic has improved my opinion of journalists. That is
especially true of local and state journalists – print, radio, television and internet
- who are more in touch with regular people, rather than celebrities and
politicians.
Journalism is at its best when there is a real emergency. The
problem is that the national media cries “Wolf!” so often that it takes some
time to realize when there really is a wolf. This coronavirus pandemic is a wolf,
and the news media is helping to make things better. They are giving us timely information
and advice about how to respond to a genuine public health crisis.
Reporters have put themselves in harm’s way and have
faithfully reported on this burgeoning and ever-changing global crisis. They
have undoubtedly saved many lives in the United States by sounding the alarm
from the very beginning of the crisis in China.
As a result I have much greater respect for the news media now. Without a
responsible press – sometimes called the fourth pillar of democracy - our federal
and state governments would not be taking the action they are now. Thank God
for journalists.
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