Journalism, The Good, The Bad & Truth Tellers!

Journalism has changed dramatically in the past number of years. The recent election cycle has pointed that out perhaps more then we expected. Imagine, one of the biggest news stories of the day is 'fake news'. That's right, people, sometimes organizations, posting fake or made up news stories. Google and Facebook are trying to figure out how to monitor or cope with this growing phenomena. Good luck.

This is one of the dilemma's we're faced with in this changing world. The reality is that newspapers are shrinking, dying, disappearing. They may continue in one form or another but they'll never be the same. Cable News presents us with the 24/7 problem. Too many hours to fill and not enough time to really check sources if you're going to stay in front of the competition.

So what happens to us, the consumers of the news. As has become more and more apparent, we are the losers, again. We become the manipulated masses, by someone, perhaps someone new everyday - Breitbart, another country, a prankster, a corporate monster, a hacker, the Main Stream Media (less likely at this point). We want to know what's going on, or what the trends are, or who is doing what. It use to be so easy. Plunk down your change, pick up the paper or journal and read. Even as we became more comfortable with the internet, it was fairly easy. Googling it, bookmarks and electronic subscriptions got us the information faster and we still trusted it.

But now in the information world and the news world it's no different than anywhere else - buyer beware.

Oh and before I forget, then there are people like me, bloggers. Yes bloggers take the heat from everyone. They are the form of journalism that everyone can hate. They are a mixed up group -independent writers, some journalists, some opinion writers, some storytellers and some just troublemakers. Honestly blogs are one of the places where former newspaper and TV and Radio newspeople will end up as the media continues to shrink, evolve or whatever it is that it's doing. Some of these people you'll know and some you won't. Trust will need to be built.

None of this bodes well for us as the public with a need and a right to know. What we've seen most recently, is that candidates and their surrogates no matter who they are or what their ideology, can if unchecked, tell whatever lies they want. They can issue stories, fact checks and the like on their own for us to read and consume. They can create news websites, blogs, electronic magazines, reports or digital video shows.

There are still truth tellers, real journalists and opinion writers who get their facts straight and check their sources. But we're losing them fast like we did Gwen Ifill, a true journalist. We still have Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman and others trying to keep things honest everyday. And there are people, good people in hometown weeklies, magazines and the few remaining giants of daily newspapers. These are folks who are trying as hard as they can to fight what's happening to the media and to provide all of us with the correct information. Sadly, in many cases, we beat them up, egged on by the people who would rather control the information their way.

Clearly I am not optimistic about where this is all going. But I do know this. Truth telling is critical. Truth telling is driven by a value for the truth and for a belief in independence from manipulation. More and more we need to find and identify the truth tellers and support them, encourage them, protect them.