Editor’s Page – August 2024

The News

One of the most troubling changes in the world of late is the decline of the news industry. As a student of journalism, I was schooled in the importance journalism has in its vital role in government. In the United States and in Britain it was referred to as the Fourth Estate.

I learned about what makes items newsworthy, and the distinction between news and opinion. For instance, a person writing a column is writing their opinion. In newspapers, they have an opinion page or section. It was essential to differentiate between what was presented as news or opinion.

But two major events happened in the 1980’s. The Fairness doctrine was dropped by the Reagan Administration. Starting in 1949 this doctrine, administrated by the FCC, required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was—in the FCC’s view—honest, equitable, and balanced. In other words, presenting both sides of an issue. That ended in 1987. This was in broadcast news. In journalism, we had the same tradition: that nothing could be printed unless it was verified by at least three reliable sources. This too, has now become lax.

The other major event was the introduction of the 24-hour news broadcast, as started by the Turner Network Television in 1988. A visionary, Ted Turner thought that it was time to present news throughout the entire day. Suddenly headline news developed. Breaking news, (sometimes referred to as broken news) developed. There were positives and negatives about trying to fill 24 hours a day with news. But the negative was that providing well-researched world and national news with the accuracy we once could depend upon from ABC, CBC, and NBC ceased. The rating wars intensified with the addition of CNN, FOX, MSNBC and various internet offerings.

On the spot coverage became very important, but less accurate. The poor on-screen reporters who appeared in front of a camera and had to present the story as it unfolded resorted to reporting a lot of supposition. There was/is a lot of misinformation as reporters would suppose a horrible event, such as the Oklahoma bombing was a terrorist act. Well, it was, but back then, terrorists were people from another country. Timothy McVeigh was a homemade, home-grown terrorist fighting against the government. And then there was the unfortunate incident at Waco.

With the internet becoming more accessible to people, websites, and blogs popped up and began expressing their opinion, which many people mistook as fact. Some of the more popular crossed over into broadcast television and people would accept these opinions as facts. Skeptical Americans slowly learned how to spot the difference.

But this is where news devolved into infotainment. Nuance and studied reporting seemed to give way to speculation, and people who didn’t like what they were hearing, and were confused by the information they were receiving, or those with other agendas, would simply call the news fake news.

It is easier to listen, or just read a headline and form an opinion than it is to fact check everything one hears. But the result of this has been a population that seems to have lost the ability for critical thinking. Grandma used to say believe only half of what you read, 25% of what you watch, and none of what you hear. If searching for the truth, we went to the encyclopedia and to the library.

This is an incredibly important time in the world’s history. With global pandemics, wars, mass shootings, and both political information and misinformation distributed equally, we must search for reliable resources to answer our questions. Hint: Politics are not reliable resources at this point in time. There are important decisions to be made that may affect our very lives.

In the USA our news is mostly all politics all the time even when the subject should not be politicized at all. We have a full world filled with news that is marvelous as well as horrifying. But we need to see the whole picture. We need this for planning our future, investing our money, raising our children and grandchildren, and now to save our republic and keep it a democracy.

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Victoria Schmidt

Victoria Schmidt came to Mexico with her husband, in 2007.She is a graduate of Moorhead State University, Minnesota and graduated Cum Laudewith a BA degree in Radio, Television and Film.At 23 she was hired at multi-national media corporation, where she worked 10 years as their Director for Operations and Finance. She then ran her own business consulting company.She has won multiple community service awards. Writing has been a passion of Victoria’s since Junior High.She has been active in the writing and publishing business for over 40 years and has been a columnist for the Ojo del Lago since 2008.

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