Does Anybody Remember Responsible Journalism?

I remember it. I remember when the university I attended taught journalism to people in the way that made the special emphasis that the most important thing was the truth. That truth was arrived at by an examination of the known facts. In the US, a gent by the name of Walter Cronkite did it better than anyone else. He read the news that he had, and he just stated the facts. Then he did something that I have not seen since the mid-1990s – he said good night, shut up, and let people make up their own mind.

Today, the so-called “talking heads” of any news network try to make up your mind for you by telling you what the facts mean. Even my own beloved CTV News (I am Canadian) does this now. Funny, I don’t remember this when Lloyd Robertson was the anchor.

In terms of what the Lord wants, the Scripture is clear that we need to follow Him, and not the news as its reported, because it can be skewed by a careful elimination of facts from the story, or some other piece of information, or worse, misinformation (deliberately false information, also known as “fake news”) on any given subject. I’m not going to tell you to watch CNN or FOX over each other, because it seems to me that they both have interests that are not in line with those of Christ.

But I’m going to follow in the footsteps of other news greats here – like Robertson and Cronkite – and let you see the facts for yourself and make up your own mind. As a follow of Christ, you and I can do no less.