Last week we were treated to the soothing and familiar radio voice of Neil Best, President and CEO of Community Radio for Northern Colorado, when he presented a topic on everyone's mind, "Fake News" and it's history in the US. Perhaps there is comfort when we consider the problem is not new. George Washington told Alexander Hamilton in 1796 he was leaving office primarily because of the effects of a hostile press. In the 18th century it was clear that reporting in the NY Sun was designed for the sole purpose of increasing circulation. In the early 19th century the terms "yellow journalism" and subsequently "tabloid journalism" were needed to describe the current journalistic content. Totally fabricated stories persist: fast forward to gunshots fired because of "the child slavery ring run by Hillary Clinton and associates out of a pizza shop", and we were reminded such misinformation can have "real world" consequences.
Locally, the fight for subscribers and survival lead to "yellow journalism" in the 1920's when the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News fought for reader share. Next, Neil highlighted the importance of the economics of the news business and it's influence on what we hear and read. Staff have been cut at most news outlets as the internet supplies information at lightning speed. News organizations debate whether readers are "citizens" or "consumers". A pivotal change in our view of the validity of federal government supplied information took place during the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration. Journalists could no longer take such information at face value and became more investigative.
We were given some tools to use to search through the "information" for the "knowledge". For example, we can check to see if the material has been edited. We can look for the "center" when we see extremes in reporting (think Fox vs MSNBC). It behooves us all to do the work to find the facts and teach our children and grandchildren to navigate the morass of information that bombards us daily from so many sources. Finally, in his only political comment, Neal stated "we (journalists) are not the enemies of the people". The "newsroom" is most often staffed by dedicated honest people; some are giving their lives in this cause.