Journalism: Changing into a Big Corporation

Republican or Democrat. It doesn't matter. For now, set your partisan platform aside. Listen with unbiased, unfiltered ears and think as a human being or as an American citizen rather than a liberal or conservative.

With this year's presidential election, I've read/heard/watched a lot of news. At an age where I can actually form my own opinion about the best candidate and debate about today's pressing issues, I looked at this election as an exciting new experience for me...a stepping stone into intellectual maturity. It didn't occur to me that, 2 months before the election, I was searching for just one news source that could provide factual and most importantly, fair information. I'm spending more time frustrated at the media than I am thinking about which candidate is the best-fit and why.

What I've observed in the last months is a ridiculously obvious pull towards one side. I am not ignorant--I realize that the media generally tends to be more liberal. However, are they even slightly attempting to APPEAR unbiased? The news is blatant and extremely mystified. Yet, liberals will be the first and loudest to state that Fox News is so ridiculously conservative, it's sickening. And while I agree, it's humoring yet frustrating to see no one chirping up about the other side.

Why is it that reporters have welcomed Barack Obama with such open arms and when attacked by McCain, they shield it with the fact that Obama received $10 million more in donations because of it? Why was the tone so different and skeptical in the Republican National Convention on CBS and NBC than it was for the DNC? Having no cable limits my options to a very select, and obviousely biased choice of channels.

Shouldn't the work of journalists be a public service? Why has it become a segway into a field of political agendas and propoganda. If journalists and editors and networks want to sway a group of people towards a certain direction, then please--I beg of you--reconsider your career field.

Blogger, Social Butterfly, probably says it best:

Walter Williams, esteemed Journalist and first dean of the world’s first journalism school, created the Journalist’s Creed. An excerpt:

I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust.

Sadly, but very true, journalism is becoming "more of a business and less a public service."

As newspaper journalism dwindles and on-demand web news journalism produces sub-par writers, a career revolution is absolutely necessary. Editors need to edit with unbiased eyes. Journalists must revert back to the art of writing and their duty of public service to this country, NOT the political agenda of filtering factual information. News networks need to stand strong against the influence of big money and remember their responsibility and role in our country.

My political standings are unbeknown to you...on purpose. Maybe you think I'm conservative because of my attack on the liberal media...well, you'd be surprised. But rather than trying to analyze my political platform, understand the plague. In every article I write, one of my top priorities is to make my political views ambiguous. I'm only an undergrad studying journalism and yet, I know that my duty is to deliver (unbias) factual information through creativity and the art of writing; so why can't our professionals do the same?

It is a sad and quick downward spiral. Let's hope that the next generation of journalists (including myself) can revert back to our social responsibility.