Is truth dead in the media’s fake news world?

As is with anything, deterioration is a pervasive cancer, it erodes the foundation of everything if attention isn’t paid to the upkeep.  

And the media is no different. 

Astoundingly, the past seven years the rot in standards and ethics, no matter what you call it, has seen it now become the antithesis of what it once was, and truth seeking the core of its ideology, is no more. 

Today’s media has manifested into more than ‘the hacks’ of years gone by could ever have imagined it would become - a profession of incompetence, where corrupt ideology lurks behind a veil of manipulation and dishonesty. 

News is no longer what it once was – news. It’s transcended into deceit and misinformation through intent.

Pinpointing when the deterioration began is difficult, or the acceptance to deceive and become propogandists for ‘the establishment’ tolerable.

Fake news was a thing long before Donald Trump began spruiking it. Ask the ancient Greeks. It was Trump’s nomination for the 2016 US Presidency that sparked a revolution of dishonesty in the media where trust began to wane dramatically.  

Then came COVID – a pandemic accentuating all the media was transgressing to, to be captured by establishments it once railed against and be used as a weapon against the masses it once fought for.

Honesty has been ditched for manipulation and dishonesty, while trust is lost and may never be regained.

Real fake news as opposed to the claim all news is fake, is about serving up falsehood as truth.

No news or fake news in a democracy is pernicious, as representative government relies on information, while an ill-informed public produces inferior laws and weak administration.

In time it could bring about the ultimate disintegration of a democratic regime altogether, with the same argument used in ancient Athens 26 centuries ago, when there was no Trump or (fake) news.

Plato lived through the crisis of Athenian democracy and, not unlike Trump, informed posterity and Athens’s fate resulted from systematic misinformation and miseducation of its people.

The US once the bastion of free press and democracy, is now hostage to a different phenomenon, and the spread has captured the media globally. 

A survey by Reuters Institute found the US ranks last in media trust — at 29% — among 92,000 news consumers surveyed in 46 countries, the most obvious answer is the media’s dramatic tilt to one side of politics.

In Australia, an Ipsos study reaffirmed what Americans feel about their media, that trust has diminished significantly.

Trust of Australians in traditional and digital media has declined, because of fake news and doubts about the media’s intentions, according to Ipsos’s global “Trust in Media” study.

As much as trust has evaporated, Australia remains one of the more trusting nations of the media, but that continues to decline rapidly.

Australia’s trust in newspapers and magazines has declined 14%. That’s, 28% have less trust now versus 14% who trust them more, while TV and radio had a net decline in trust of 13%, with online news websites and platforms incurring a 9% net decline.

Globally, newspapers and magazines suffered the greatest net decline in trust of 16% alongside TV and radio (16%), followed by online news websites and platforms at 12% versus five years ago.

Ipsos further found people across 27 countries were divided on whether they trusted traditional media. Globally, 49% trust TV and radio to be a reliable source of news and information, while 46% don’t have much trust, or no trust at all. The same is similar for newspapers and magazines - 47% trust them and 48% don’t.

A Gallup poll also found only 7% of Americans have trust and confidence in the news media.

It wasn’t that long ago when standards governed the media where it held political parties and corporations to account.

Now however, that landscape has changed, where once upon a time, it was the norm.

Holding to account political parties and business was what was expected – it’s what made journalism a noble profession and it still remains as such for those media outlets that have stayed true to the ideology of the craft.

Journalism was the pillar people could depend on, where the expectation of truth would be told of what was going on and hold to account those in power.

Objective, accurate, honest reporting made it possible for people to form opinions and make informed decisions about who they wanted to vote for, or wanted to have removed from power or Office.

It’s why the media was given robust constitutional protection - to ensure there was a free press who’d provide the checks and balances of those in Canberra, Washington, Downing St or Berlaymont, and hold them to account without fear of retaliation, cancellation, or loss of jobs.

The media then, but not seemingly now, was the overseer – it exposed corruption and operated outside the system, as a separate entity, working in the public’s interests and not for those in power.

Rather than operate outside the system, it’s become ‘the system’ and the very establishment it should challenge.

Cosy relationship between journalists in the Canberra, Washington, or Downing St establishments, poses a dangerous threat to democracy.

With the stench of decay reaping through mainstream media, an inevitability of its collapse strengthens.

It’s apparent the media has gone further to the left in its ideology and is bent on biased reporting, underreporting, not reporting, or twisting news reports to the benefit of the left and those on the fringes - indirectly and directly designed to disfavor opposing views counter to the narrative.

Any claim of objectivity and trustworthiness with information, was destroyed during the 2016 election and COVID and the relentless desire to Get Trump further underscores its demise.

The media’s rabid obsession to take Trump down with claims of Russian collusion, Comey, Twitter files, foreign policy matters, two failed impeachments, COVID, Ukraine, Presidential documents and now his indictment have all been to their detriment.

As the media continues to lose support, and the public is more aware of its destructive behavior, people are turning to alternative news sources in droves. But is that a good thing?

Independent news outlets are now playing an important part in news gathering and reporting, unlike major media which now offers opinion rather than report the news.

And just as independent media’s relevance and importance grows, mainstream must rethink its model.

Failure in trust, standards, fairness, and balance has given reason as to why people are abandoning mainstream.

News outlets are choosing to take the low road by refusing to report on important issues in favor of leftist ideology, transgenderism, wokism, gossip and fabrication.

It needs to return to what it once was, a profession of ethics, but now its fake news designed to deliberately mislead, depending on which side of the fence you sit and the narrative you follow.

Seymor Hersh, recently on CNN said, there was a time the media was trusted.

“You go back to the old days of networks and they are long gone. I always felt like when I worked at the 'New York Times' what we wrote was trusted.”

“We now have a situation where a lot of people tune in to what they like and don't listen to what they don't like.”

Hersh is right. The world needs the return of a strong media - independent in thought from advertisers and management who can’t control the news directive and what’s reported.

Instead, control is exercised, the media no longer operates independently from the control of advertiser’s dollars, and influence reigns fervently over the slant of what they want reported to what should be reported and how.

If the media fails to return to what it once was, and operate independently from corporate and political influence, then a State control Chinese model looms and people’s voices are muted forever.