Journalism at a crossroads as shooting the messenger becomes populist ploy | Opinion
Retired journalist W.E. Gutman worries that self-censorship among reporters will become more prevalent as more partisan ideologues find value in attacking the press.
They say that journalism is the first draft of history. Indelible images of the human drama are seized then frozen in time on the printed page or replayed on the airwaves. Delivered warts and all, facts should discourage revisionists from tampering with the truth. Alas, for many, fact has become calumny, reality a foe, truth heresy. For those whose only loyalty is to the truth, it’s a lonely world. The price for such devotion is often steep, and those who are willing to pay for it never lack enemies. Are some media hurtling down the rabbit hole of evasion, stonewalling and conscious self-censorship? Who speaks for those who cannot speak freely?
To the enemies of truth, journalists make appetizing quarries. If our exposés or commentaries are too graphic or irreverent, or too close for comfort, we’re accused of needlessly giving readers palpitations. No matter what we report, we’re sure to be reviled by someone along the way. Nor are readers a homogeneous lot. They come in sundry hues, tastes and biases. Some take things out of context and misconstrue. Some see conspiracy in syntax. They scrutinize and dissect every utterance as if it concealed some subversive coded message. They can’t see the sentence from the words. Some advocate banning works or even ideas they disagree with. They are so jarred by the truth that they want it suppressed, obliterated, reduced to ashes — along with the reporters who unearth it.
Mercifully, many also seek to be informed. They possess the intellectual elasticity to judge the news and commentaries on their own merits. It is to them that scrupulous journalists devote their narratives and, in some cases, risk their lives with increasingly tragic consequences.
Not all journalists rush in where angels fear to tread. Some are daunted by the naked truth. Political correctness — the sacrifice of truth at the altar of hypocrisy — tames readers and keeps advertisers happy. Unlike open scandal, which peaks in an orgy of vitriol and rebuke, then dies, self-censorship leaves a trail of speculations and a scent of putrefaction. It’s bad enough when politicians hide behind a wall of secrecy and lies; it’s worse when the media, the conscience of a free society, sheepishly corrupt their mission by colluding to keep the public in the fog of ignorance. It is the height of obscenity when politicians vilify the Fourth Estate or want it silenced.
Despite opinions to the contrary, journalists are not spiritual saboteurs or apologists for the devil. Nor do we get paid to generate solutions for the problems we cite. Our job is to observe and report. Solutions can only be extracted from the problems themselves and from those who create them.
What emerges from some readers’ comments — generally in the cowardly shadows of anonymity — is the appalling suggestion that divulging verifiable facts is an act of disloyalty or subversion. A free, independent press is the bedrock of democracy, especially where democracy is being systematically eroded. Analytical criticism is not unpatriotic. It’s a fundamental right, an obligation, and the manifestation of a nation’s health and conscience.
Silence is the real villain.
Paris-born W. E. Gutman is a retired journalist and published author. He lives in Greenacres.