This is quaint. As someone who has worked in the government, in journalism and as a crisis manager I know this above all: There are no rules in journalism. None. Times-Sullivan is a defamation shield no public official plaintiff can defeat and has never defeated.
Platforms write and sometimes publish inaccurate information and there is no punishment because there is no licensure and no penalty because there are no rules. “Objectiveness” is whatever the writer or platform decides. Because the game is about being first to publish, Investigation is increasingly rare. This is why trust in legacies media has fallen and it will get worse.
I know my journalism years were quick and numbered because I got tired of having to be objective when so much of the news we had to report were human and civil rights violations, yet no one seemed to care enough to see how their reporting could end such atrocities.
I applaud you and anyone else who still has that stamina to tell the truth in those rooms and who can keep it civil enough to do so.
But my scholarship and lived experience on the local beat and understanding how municipal and state governments, especially in the US and Canada like to move, on top of how you pointed out how few of us are in newsrooms, has made me stay in the movement/advocacy space, until I feel like we are truly at parity and outside of that apartheid.
And, at a certain point, the explanation of ourselves to those colleagues who still see us as lesser than or as an exception, is basically the distraction that Toni Morrison mentioned.
However, I also believe that if you still have the passion to speak up, the stamina to fight, the support of your real ones and things to help you find joy and grounding, carry on!
love this
This is quaint. As someone who has worked in the government, in journalism and as a crisis manager I know this above all: There are no rules in journalism. None. Times-Sullivan is a defamation shield no public official plaintiff can defeat and has never defeated.
Platforms write and sometimes publish inaccurate information and there is no punishment because there is no licensure and no penalty because there are no rules. “Objectiveness” is whatever the writer or platform decides. Because the game is about being first to publish, Investigation is increasingly rare. This is why trust in legacies media has fallen and it will get worse.
I know my journalism years were quick and numbered because I got tired of having to be objective when so much of the news we had to report were human and civil rights violations, yet no one seemed to care enough to see how their reporting could end such atrocities.
I applaud you and anyone else who still has that stamina to tell the truth in those rooms and who can keep it civil enough to do so.
But my scholarship and lived experience on the local beat and understanding how municipal and state governments, especially in the US and Canada like to move, on top of how you pointed out how few of us are in newsrooms, has made me stay in the movement/advocacy space, until I feel like we are truly at parity and outside of that apartheid.
And, at a certain point, the explanation of ourselves to those colleagues who still see us as lesser than or as an exception, is basically the distraction that Toni Morrison mentioned.
However, I also believe that if you still have the passion to speak up, the stamina to fight, the support of your real ones and things to help you find joy and grounding, carry on!