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USA Edition | Today Is Monday, March 22, 2010 |
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USA Edition | Today Is Monday, March 22, 2010 |
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Television's Equivalent To Bankers, Bonuses And Credit Swaps
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Our nation is in trouble today. Everyone’s investments have tanked. Millions are without work. Millions of families have been turned out of their homes. Anger is everywhere. People are scared — even those who still have jobs. How could this happen? Who knew?
The unraveling of probative and responsible television news is part of the problem. You told your nation what was profitable to you just as bankers made sub-prime loans, insurance companies insured speculation, Wall Street gambled on credit swaps, rating agencies traded on their credibility and congress sold out to the highest bidder. As managers, anchors, reporters, producers, station owners, weather staff, and sports personalities the men and women of television news helped to do to your industry what bankers, brokers and insurance companies did to this nation’s once mighty financial institutions.
You were given control of the most effective means of communication in human history. You accepted the mantle of journalism — an institution so central to freedom it was given protected status by the brave men who affixed their signatures to the Constitution of The United States of America. Your freedom to publish what mattered most was paid for in American blood at Anzio, Guadalcanal, Normandy, Can Tho and Baghdad.
You have squandered your medium and The Honorable House Of Journalism.
You failed your nation. You evaded responsibility to your children and grand-children. You ill-served your community, ill informed your viewers and sought riches for yourself. Like bankers, financiers and bonus-driven CEO’s, you took the money and looked the other way. In the doing, you perverted journalism, made a mockery of public service, and betrayed your communities.
You did these things by perverting responsible journalism into opinion pandering and entertainment.
Journalism is about what’s important, not demographic skew or entertainment motivated viewership.
You are accountable for what you have done — to your fellow citizens and to generations yet unborn. What is aired as news in nearly every market, on cable, and at every network is knowingly and criminally dumbed-down to the journalistic equivalent of liar-loans, sub-prime mortgages, securitized debt and speculative credit swaps.
America is only now discovering what the bankers, insurance companies, brokerages and Fannie Mae have done. The search for the perpetrators, crooked dealings, dishonest managers, wrongful misuse of the public trust has only just begun. Over time America will discover your role, your failure to inform, your self-serving greed and misconduct.
Being A Journalist Makes Of Us Soldiers For Freedom
Today’s a good day to turn around. Show you get it. Confess your wrongdoing. Renounce your wrongdoing. There are far too many responsible adults in broadcasting who have remained silent. You must speak out — for your family, your nation and your profession. Should you choose to do so, here are some things you need to be telling yourself and everyone around you. Every day, at every opportunity.
By being a journalist, reporter or news person you are held to a higher standard.
Robert Butche
Publisher
Newsroom Magazine
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