One Of The Last True Journalists Speaks

We live in a world where CNN just welcomed a neo-Nazi of the Heil Trump variety into a discussion, because why not? The topic was whether Jews are people, which is a question that's been on my mind, of course, since I was born into a family of them.

Seriously? This is what it's come to? From a network that once pretended to be the sober one? So, clearly, without a demand from the public to do better, they'll keep aiming as low as needed to get the eyeballs.

Christiane Amanpour was just honored by the Committee to Protect Journalism. Her speech needs to be heard not only by so-called journalists, but by citizens demanding better of them. Until then, it seems, for real reporting we'll need to rely on non-US sources. Even before Trump, journalism in this country, especially as seen on TV, had devolved to the point of near uselessness, led by such people as Wolf Blitzer, Chuck Todd. Read or listen, here, to what Ms Amanpour had to say. Among the highlights:

... A great America requires a great and free and safe press.
So this above all is an appeal to protect journalism itself.
Recommit to robust fact-based reporting without fear or favor--on the issues.
Don't stand for being labelled crooked or lying or failing
Do stand up together--for divided we will all fall.
...
First, like many people watching where I was overseas, I admit I was shocked by the exceptionally high bar put before one candidate and the exceptionally low bar put before the other candidate.
It appeared much of the media got itself into knots trying to differentiate between balance, objectivity, neutrality, and crucially, truth.
...
I believe in being truthful, not neutral. And I believe we must stop banalizing the truth.
And we have to be prepared to fight especially hard for the truth in a world where the Oxford English Dictionary just announced its word of 2016: post-truth...

And, for those who might be reading my next newspaper column, I wrote it and sent it in before I read of her award and speech.

[Image source]