Wednesday, September 14, 2016

A response to an Arizona Republic article

I'm posting this as a blog so more people will read it.

After reading a column by a local reporter in the AZ Republic this morning, I wrote him the following email:

Mr. Goodykoontz:
Once upon a time, honesty and fairness were considered virtues. Today’s mass media have thrown them out and replaced them with the abdication of all pretense of responsible reporting. Donald Trump and the GOP get to say whatever they want, lying through their teeth with savage, vitriolic words slithering out of their mouths and the media lets all of it slide. The lies are left to boil in the cesspool of public thought, unchecked by the Fourth Estate which silently condones them by their silence and inattention. But, should Secretary Clinton say or do anything about calling out the abominable behavior of Mr. Trump or his supporters, she is pilloried, drawn and quartered by the media. Journalistic ethics have been thrown out the window in favor of creating controversy for the corporate heads who see these tactics as a stream of money for selling more papers, attracting more viewers and listeners and generating more and more profits. As corporate entities own all the media and most big companies lean Republican, it’s easy to see that bias also plays a huge part in what gets reported and how it’s reported.
The media have abdicated their prime responsibility, to present the truth. Your question at the end of your column today: Will the media recover? is easily answered. No, it will not because until profit is taken out of the equation, pandering to a gullible public who eats up controversy and accepts lies as truth will be seen as a money-maker and that, above all, drives the news business today.

Respectfully, 

Reisa Miller