Vigilant media a cornerstone? I question that premise. Although news reporting is an essential element of a free society, vigilant is not the quality I most want in reporting. Honest, factual, fair, evenhanded, unbiased to the extent it is possible for humans to be unbiased...all these are qualities that matter to me. We have none of those qualities in our media these days. I would argue that we don't even have vigilance.
The fundamental problem is the singular a news media one.People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of NationsThe problem is that the only ideological competition the Associated Press and its membership collectively face is talk radio. Before the end of the Fairness Doctrine at the end of the Reagan Administration, we didnt even have that. The reason is quite simple: that is what the conspiracy against the public resulting from a continuous virtual meeting of all major journalism outlets looks like. The meeting, furthermore, is not about merriment and diversion but precisely about their collective product. It is inevitable under the circumstances that the distinctives of commercially successful general interest journalism should metastasize into a political viewpoint which is a conspiracy against the public. Those distinctives include If it bleeds, it leads, Man Bites Dog, not Dog Bites Man, Stonewall any criticism of bias in the media," and always meet your deadline.Those distintives are not neutral - they imply negativity towards society and the people/institutions which make society work. And not merely negativity - they actually imply cynicism toward society. And since every complaint about society implies a there oughta be a law reaction, cynicism towards society implies naiveté towards government domination of society. And the combination of naiveté towards government and cynicism towards society is, IMHO, the very definition of socialism.
The ancient Greeks defined the response to unfair argumentation of the sort we see in modern journalism:
The lover of wisdom (philosopher) takes the position that truth and wisdom exist, but refuses to claim any monopoly on either. Instead, the philosopher eschews ad hominem argumentation and other tricks of the sort the sophist uses to manipulate the debate. Journalists engage in sophistry - stonewalling discussion of inconvenient issues, for example - because they can. Conservative talk show hosts, OTOH, take on challenging callers and discuss any issue. And they openly admit to their conservatism, rather than claiming objectivity as the journalist does. The role of philosopher requires self discipline, but it is the only option one really has when faced with a disadvantage such as the immense propaganda power of MSM journalism.
- sophist
- 1542, earlier sophister (c.1380), from L. sophista, sophistes, from Gk. sophistes, from sophizesthai "to become wise or learned," from sophos "wise, clever," of unknown origin. Gk. sophistes came to mean "one who gives intellectual instruction for pay," and, contrasted with "philosopher," it became a term of contempt. Ancient sophists were famous for their clever, specious arguments.
- philosopher
- O.E. philosophe, from L. philosophus, from Gk. philosophos "philosopher," lit. "lover of wisdom," from philos "loving" + sophos "wise, a sage."
"Pythagoras was the first who called himself philosophos, instead of sophos, 'wise man,' since this latter term was suggestive of immodesty." [Klein]