brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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News is like food. There's junk food and there's healthy food. We all know the difference between the two. Junk food is easy to consume. It's pre-packaged and takes little effort. Healthy food, on the other hand, requires planning and forethought. Occasionally we have to go out of our way to find the right ingredients. We also need to read labels carefully to discern if the food is as healthy as it purports to be. Ultimately, though, we’re responsible for our own choices. Blaming the media for feeding us fake news is like blaming Hostess Twinkies for making us fat.
Junk news of the Twinkie variety has a misleading URL, no byline, pop-up ads and headlines that are nothing more than click bait. They’re easy to spot — and avoid. The vast majority of mainstream media, on the other hand, is producing accurate, verifiable news reported by trained, reputable professionals, many with years of experience. These journalists follow a code of ethics that includes principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability. Individual print, broadcast and online news organizations follow this code as well. For a news story to be “fake,” the journalist and news organization employing that journalist must conspire to intentionally deceive the public. Accusing an organization or individual of such a practice is like accusing your bank of cheating you or your accountant of not following tax laws when filing your taxes. Often it’s our own practices that are at fault, not the industry. Stop drawing conclusions from a headline without delving into the article. That’s like filling up on unhealthy snacks because you’re too lazy to make a meal. Stop sharing articles online unless you know it’s from a credible source. Would you push food on your guests if you didn’t know where it came from? And enough with the anonymous videos. You might as well be ingesting poison. The “fake news” claim is a blatant attempt to delegitimize the mainstream press. If you question the facts, go to the sources. Look for non-partisan viewpoints. Read a peer-reviewed, empirical study in a professional journal. Don’t just watch one television station or subscribe to one newspaper or magazine. Widen your list of online news sources. Question what you read. Dig deeper. Something isn’t “fake” just because you don’t like what it says. Journalists aren’t biased just because they're presenting a point of view that doesn't align with yours. And remember: an opinion piece is just that — somebody else’s opinion. In general, we have become a country of lazy consumers blaming the media for what it feeds us when we should be making healthy, wise choices for ourselves.
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |