The free Press must go to war
Fake news is now a category. Trolling is of the essence. Hate mail is common. Targeting journalists is on the increase
It was undramatic. Just an office memo on August 14 from the Boston Globe, which not so long ago was pushed into the global cinematic limelight after the movie Spotlight hit theatres around the world. But this was not some major investigation or uncovering of a scandal. This was a rearguard action to defend the frontiers of the fourth estate from the unending assault by the duly elected president of the country.
Even as US President Donald Trump’s anti-press rhetoric rises, over 350 newspapers in the US banded behind the Globe’s initiative to print editorials on August 16 decrying the President’s ‘enemy of the people’ warhead against media and propagating a hostility that resonates in large swathes of the public. These include the New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Miami Herald and Denver Post.
Underplaying the offensive Marjorie Pritchard, deputy editor of the newspaper stated, “We propose to publish an editorial on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date.”
They did exactly that but it largely tanked with the White House and added more glee to the Trump arsenal. He sent out a flurry of tweets, strongest among them was this: “There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants,
but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!”
For what it is worth, the Globe’s effort did indicate the return of a certain togetherness that has been missing in the media. Not entirely, though. Even within its ranks of the US media as anti-Globe elements and the current spearheading has also brought up how the Globe destroyed the competition and conducted a ‘dirty war’ (to use Trump’s expression) against the other Boston based papers, five of which finally closed down.
Keeping this attrition in mind and assessing the public outrage at the Press globally is also on the increase and media across the planet would do well to watch the situation developing in the US very closely. We are not too far away from the sort of public disaffection ourselves and we can discuss till the cows come home how much of this dislike is deserved and how we have brought it upon ourselves by manufacturing convenient ‘news’ and interpreting facts into fiction. But that cannot eclipse the truth that media is the only bridge between the public
and the government and bureaucracy that runs it. Without that conduit there is anarchy.
Suffice it to say that even if the watchdog it once was is now a weak-kneed mongrel the advent of social media and the fact that everyone is a potential reporter and photographer has diluted the professionalism and softened the parameters to a massive extent.
It is difficult to sift the pretender from the professional and one is loath to submit that trust and belief in the written word has largely been sold down the river.
It is also germane that there are still enough practitioners in the media who do an honest job and risk their livelihood and their lives to cover developments. The Trump ‘one brush to tar all’ attitude is unfair and arbitrary but exploits the divisiveness within media by media and for that we end up losers.
Trump is fuelled by the support he gets at public rallies where he spits venom at the Press. Fist shaking and boos from the galleries and intimidation of the Press at such functions has become the norm and is now an expectation. Several journalists have gone on record saying they are afraid to sit in the Press pen at public functions.
Trump goes for them on a one to one. Last month, in the UK, he refused to recognise the CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, saying, “CNN is fake news. I don’t take questions from CNN.” A week later, the White House barred another CNN reporter, Kaitlan Collins, from attending a public appearance by President Trump because of the piercing questions she had earlier asked.
Fake news is now a category. Trolling is of the essence. Hate mail is common. Targeting journalists is on the increase. It is a sobering thought that December 15 is Remembrance Day for journalists killed on duty in Russia. The 2003 film Killed on
Duty underscores the risks. It says: Around the world, journalists are increasingly being killed. They die in the crossfire. They die at the hand of criminals and corrupt governments. They die in tragic accidents.
The vicious personal attacks in online responses to articles have become intolerable and dangerous. At the same time as the presidential barrage intensifies there is now a call to open another flank and that is the end of tolerance for trolls.
Between Trump and the trolls, the media, like the empire, must strike back with a plan of action to defend its Alamo or face meek surrender.
It is difficult to sift the pretender from the professional and one is loath to submit that trust and belief in the written word has largely been sold down the river