The Responsibility of the Mainstream Press

It's no secret that the mainstream Press has long ago lost sight of its responsibility. We've all heard the phrase "freedom of the press", and most of us know that it stems from the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. What most probably do not know are the reasons why the Press was included in the First Amendment, instead of the Third, or even included at all in such an important and powerful document.

It was the intent of our Founding Fathers to enable the Press to operate without Governmental restrictions, in order to educate Citizens in Government activities and other matters of importance. Thomas Jefferson said in 1804, thirteen years after ratification of the Bill of Rights:

"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all avenues of the truth".

In other words, the intent of our Founding Fathers, in guaranteeing a free Press, was to enable it to function as an independent check and balance to the three official government branches.

The Press lost sight of this between 1895 and 1898, and sensationalized the news in order to drive up circulation, eventually leading critics to coin the phrase Yellow Journalism. When this practice helped lead to the Spanish-American War, one of the leaders of the Yellow Press came to his senses and called for a new sense of order and social responsibility in the Press. His name was Joseph Pulitzer, and later funded the first school of Journalism; and now the Pulitzer Prize represents an award that is regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism.

Segue to 2008, where the mainstream Press has once again sunk to the depths of Yellow Journalism. The Press is now about selling advertising; it's about Business, instead of functioning as an impartial method of dissemenating critical information to the public. It it also clearly biased, politically leaning either Left or Right. And, tragically, it is also cowardly, afraid to stand up to a corrupt Government, to report the truth, to expose the lies, and to demand corrective actions.

This year stands to be one of the most pivotal in United States history, with our very integrity on the line. It's clear to me that if Americans were provided accurate facts by the Press, Bush would have been impeached long ago, and Obama would already have secured the Democratic nomination. But instead, we're left to sift through lies repeated as fact by prominent talking heads in the mainstream media. Americans are essentially crippled, unable to make informed decisions based on facts.

What is the answer? Some entity that has enough clout (read: power and/or money) needs to step up and force the Press to start acting responsibly. The current government won't do anything, because the Press is now a tool for their use. Perhaps a new government might be able to impose regulation that forces the Press to follow certain standards (think Sarbanes-Oxley), but that would be tricky, as it would have to walk a very thin line between maintaining the integrity of a free Press and assuring that the same Press followed responsible standards.

I don't have any good ideas on how to accomplish this, but I do know one thing: something needs to get the Press to operate responsibly agian. There is far too much at stake.