Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: thorvaldr
it is the media’s job to serve as the “opposition” to President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
Yes! That is the medias job. They are supposed to be a watchdog of the government. They are not supposed to just parrot the official government line.
It is often claimed that journalists must be objective because of the First Amendment. That is propaganda, or misunderstanding fostered by propaganda. The First Amendment precludes the government from enforcing any standard of objectivity - and, as understood, little in the way of a standard of truthfulness. There are libel laws, but . . .

In no sense does the First Amendment enforce objectivity, and there is no reason in the Bible why a Christian should assume that journalism would be objective. Journalists do claim that journalism is objective, but that is sheer propaganda. It is a self-negating claim, in that it is inconsistent with candor about any reasons why you might have a motive not to be objective. And such candor is sine qua non for anyone actually trying to be objective. It is legitimate, and laudable, to try to be objective. It is even legitimate to claim that you are trying to be objective (if indeed you are). But to claim actually to be objective is to be arrogant - and to foreclose the possibility that you actually are even trying to be objective.

If journalism isn’t objective, what is the point of the First Amendment? Simply this - freedom of the press allows the possibility that the truth will be published by somebody. But of course, that depends on the existence of multiple free and independent presses. Rather than a “media” which actually consists of the Associated Press, and various front organizations which are distinct but not different.

People of the same trade [e.g., journalists] seldom meet together [e.g., virtually over the AP newswire], 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 Nations
SCOTUS long ago declared the AP to be in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but the AP’s mission of economizing on scarce and expensive bandwidth in the transmission of news made the AP “too big to fail.” The difference in the Internet era is that transmission bandwidth is not "scarce and expensive.” It is dirt cheap.

83 posted on 11/30/2016 5:13:41 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]


To: conservatism_IS_compassion

What I am trying to say, though I am doing a poor job of it, is that the media being what they are (communists) and doing what they do (coordinated propaganda) is a big reason we can only have Republicans in public office. I would rather have themedia watching the government like a hawk while making mindless accusations and calling people racist than have them covering up government wrong doings and forcing the party line down our throats.


85 posted on 12/01/2016 8:39:11 AM PST by thorvaldr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson