Rolling Stone's profile of Fox News chief Roger Ailes this week provides the latest item in a long line of evidence that Fox News is a morally bankrupt sham of a news organization - a propaganda outlet that engages in intentional lying to advance its partisan cause. If you haven't read the piece yet, do. It's vital media criticism.
I've met plenty of journalists who bristle when I criticize Fox News. They've told me that, as defenders of free speech and the First Amendment, journalists should not be in the business of trying to silence other voices in the media marketplace.
But as defenders of truth, journalists also have an obligation to call out voices that intentionally spread lies to the public. Fox News' owners and executives have a right to speak. But they don't have a right to set the public agenda. It's past time for responsible journalists to stand up against Fox News.
Tim Dickinson's piece reviews many of Fox News' offenses against the truth. Don't fall for the line that it's only Fox's commentators who distance themselves from the truth to promote their agenda. Fox newsroom personnel are guilty, too. Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon has been caught bragging about spreading lies about Barack Obama, for just one example.
Despite my enthusiasm for Rolling Stone's piece, one article now and then won't cut it. Fox News broadcasts around the clock. An effective industry effort against the organization must hit it every day. Traditional fact-checking efforts and media criticism sites aren't enough, either. There's a huge difference between a news organization that spreads false reports by mistake and one, like Fox, that spreads it by design. The intent behind Fox's mendacity is a bigger story than even the lies themselves.
Okay, I sense the pushback. Many traditional journalists are uneasy with such advocacy. But advocacy is an essential part of journalism - if we're not pushing to teach, to engage and to motivate with our reporting, then what's the use of writing it?
I won't criticize Fox News for its advocacy, or even for its partisanship. I think both fine for news organizations. Newspapers for generations have employed crusading editorial writers and op-ed columnists. My problems with Fox News are its lying and its bigotry. (Check the Rolling Stone piece for more on Ailes and his stance on "the gays.")
We need advocacy - advocacy for the world view that evidence matters, that it can't be brushed aside it if challenges a desired ideology, and that it shouldn't be selectively molded to fit that ideology. We need advocacy against granting public influence to voices that promote ideology over evidence and the protection of powerful friends over spreading the truth.
We need more journalists who will follow the lead of Jon Stewart, and mock Fox News for its hypocrisy, attack it for its lies, and report the truth of its motivations.
More importantly, we need journalists who can engage Fox News' viewers and fans, and show them how Fox's "reporting" is hurting them, their incomes, their jobs, their communities and their security.
Ultimately, few of our readers care if Fox News doesn't meet our professional standards as journalists. But do care about their jobs, their families and their communities. Fox New warps that concern, twisting it to motivate people to support Fox's agenda of phantom menaces. If more people saw how what Roger Ailes wants for America was hurting them, support for Fox would drop and support for more accurate journalism, in aggregate, might rise.
That's the business opportunity for journalists willing to stand up to Fox News. As popular as the news channel might be, many Americans are sick of Fox News' lies, and frustrated with the rest of the journalism industry for not doing more to counteract Fox. Inspire that audience with a strong stand for truth - and a strong stand for the public's interest - and you might be able to capture some of that audience for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment