“You are fake news!”
“The Fake News Media,
the true Enemy of the People.”
“All those people in the
back are fake news.”
Since the 2016 elections
and with the growing rise of populism around the world, we have heard these
sentence time and time again. While the first two of the above quotes can be
attributed to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the third is
from a “news anchor”, Sean Hannity. What strikes me is there seems to be a
consensus among conservative intellectuals around the fact that the news media
is biased and not reporting the news objectively. While this question can be
debated over issues such as coverage time and content disparities between
different news stations, these allegations against the free press are truly
damning and dangerous for the very core of our democracy. As this is a
never-ending debate, we must wonder ourselves: Who is the media? What is the
free press and who can we consider a journalist? Is opinion journalism a true
form of journalism? The answer to that last question is no. Opinions are not
and never will be journalism, and, as such, opinion anchors such as Hannity
should not have a news centered platform to further their agenda.
According to the American
Press Institute, “Journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating,
and presenting news and information. It is also the product of these
activities”.[1] Journalism used to be a way for political
actors to pass along their message and control a certain narrative. For
example, the New York Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton to be his
periodical, reporting on news in a manner favourable to him and his political
views. Over the years, however, realizing that they couldn’t reach a broader audience,
news stations started to change their ways and report news in a neutral
fashion.[2]That practice now seems to be old news. Nowadays,
journalists “report” their own view, their own “opinion”. By definition, an
opinion is “a judgment or an uncertain belief”[3], which can
basically mean anything. Therefore, opinion journalists are not obligated to
report facts, and they do not have to respond to the journalistic Code of
Ethics. These journalists can make outrageous claims about any matter in order
to manipulate or influence the public’s thinking. Worse, they diffuse false
claims and other allegations with the power to destroy the credibility of other
people. While doing so, they claim that these allegations are their own opinion
and that opinion is protected under free speech.
Through such practices,
these journalists become what they are have been claiming to denounce all
along. From the left to the right of the political spectrum, ethics seems to be
forgotten in order to simply shoot back at one another and further push forward
one’s own narrative. This line of thinking pushes everyone to choose a side, to
radicalize themselves in their own ideological bubble. Democracy is not about
having two sides screaming at each other, but rather about having two sides
engaging in meaningful dialogue. This is why Rex Murphy, Sean Hannity, Don
Lemon, Tucker Carlson and all those like them are a problem. To gather a
broader audience, they engage in a toxic public discourse bound to make
tensions escalate for either the right or the left, creating more division in a
world already divided on so many issues. Statements like “White men are the
biggest terrorist threat in America”[4]made by a popular anchor like
Don Lemon are inevitably going to create a divide. Another example of such
controversial and divisive statements is undoubtedly Tucker Carlson’s:
“Immigration makes America dirtier and poorer.” These commentators, through
such affirmations, raise some serious issues while basing themselves only upon
their own view without any fact-checking. This is even more problematic when
these journalists have connections to large companies. Take Rex Murphy for
example. Murphy is clearly positioned in the center-right of the political
spectrum. As a full-time reporter for the National Post, he has used his
platform more than once to be very vocal against Liberals and supportive of
Conservatives. What Murphy is not very vocal about, though, is his close
relationship with oil companies.[5]As a political commentator,
Murphy’s words have power and influence. As such, if he is being paid by
companies to defend them and the Conservatives who enjoy a fructuous
relationship with oil companies on national television without publicly
disclosing these payments, it is seriously condemning and frankly dangerous for
our democracy.
The world is already
divided enough and having divisive partisanship in politics is not helping. The
only solution to this issue is to return to neutral and fact-based journalism.
Political editorialists need to be closely watched, fact-checked and, frankly,
should not be called journalists at all. Instead of dividing and attacking one
another, we should strive to unite and engage in meaningful dialogue if we are
to work hand in hand for a better world. Sadly, opinion journalism is too toxic
for that goal to be reached, and this is why we should abolish it.
- Louis-Philippe Otis (Sciences Humaines)
- Louis-Philippe Otis (Sciences Humaines)
[1]American Press Institute, “What is
journalism”, 2019, retrieved the 02-16-2019 at https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/
[2]Digital ressource center, “The Ethics of
the Opinion Journalist”, 2019, retrieved the 16-02-2019 at
https://digitalresource.center/content/ethics-opinion-journalist
[3]Dictionnaire de
philosophie en ligne, “Opinion”, 2019, retrieved the 02-16-2019 at
https://dicophilo.fr/definition/opinion/
[4]FERRERAS,
Jesse, “CNN’s Don Lemon calls white men the ‘biggest terror threat’ in America,
and data backs him up”, Global News, November 2 2018, retrieved the 02-16-2019
Global
news Don Lemon
[5]GRANDIA,
Kevin, “Why Rex Murphy's Relationship With Oil Matters”, Huffington Post,
04-20-2014, retrieved the 02-16-2019 at
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/desmog-canada/rex-murphy-oil_b_4809785.html
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