Journalism--or what passes for it

This week our local newspaper waged a campaign against a city official. The articles have divulged personal information better left unprinted—for the sake of him, his family and the rest of us. The attack has been personal and mean. It has been blatantly self-serving. (How many papers and clicks can we sell if we slop around down here in the sewer?)

I have decided not to read the newspaper in question, not in print nor on-line. I hope others will make the same choice.

I recognize this merely represents the latest in a long line of media fails. Once-proud networks have fallen from Murrow to Williams, from investigative to yellow journalism. I remember watching actual reporters breaking actual news while sweating humidity and bullets in Viet Nam. Now I feel I must consume at least three outlets just to get the facts. Everybody has an agenda. Everybody's bottom line colors their editorial policy.

Many moons ago I had the opportunity to interview Bob Knight, the basketball coach at Indiana University. He intimidated me into preparing for the experience with a rigor I have matched only once: when I took the board exams to qualify for the ministry. (Well, I was pretty nervous when I went to dinner the first time with my eventual wife's parents.)  I made absolutely certain every word I printed about Knight was accurate. If only reporters--and editors--always took this approach.

We live in media ghettos. We tend to consume only what agrees with our preconceptions.  I urge you to turn to Fox, National Public Radio, the Atlantic Monthly, the National Review—oh: and the Bible AND Discover magazine. Think about it. Test it with your B.S. meter. Listen to people you respect with whom you disagree. Repeat with me the vital incantation, “I could be wrong.”

Our local newspaper seems oblivious to the irony of its rage against any person or organization it feels might be spinning information. It has made me feel a little slimy just from reading certain headlines. It has done the same number when crusading against the local school district and community college. Its "coverage" of a lengthy debate about how best to serve the homeless villainized decent people on all sides.  I have given up thinking it can clean up its act. That leaves only the question of whether I can clean up mine. And you, yours.