May Column Winner

Inheriting a Legacy of Lies: Becoming a newspaper reporter in the midst of fake news media

By DeAnna Maddox, Cushing Citizen

Sideways glances and no comment. ‘There’s no story here’ because there’s no scandal. Being told over and over ‘we have nothing to hide’ as if my only job is to unearth dirty laundry. 

It is my job to pull skeletons from the closet, yes, but that is not my goal. My goal is solely truth – unbiased, unopinated, undeniable truth. I do not write things as fact if I do not know them to be. 

I will not attribute my own thoughts as fact and I will not promote scandal where there is none.
With that being said, those who refuse to answer simple questions I will state the refusal. I will not state it as an admission of guilt but we are living in a society that takes omission as admission. We no longer live in a society of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. No, more often than not it is now ‘guilty until proven innocent’. We live in a society of distrust and separation. Not only that but a society that blames the news for distrust and separation, unfortunately, in some cases rightfully so.

In today’s news world, it has become more important to be first rather than to be factual, which has spawned a share now, ask questions later mentality. In a world where going viral is more of a goal than being honest, who can blame the masses for questioning small town journalists, like myself. Except it is we small town journalists, who are searching for truth the most.

I cannot speak for all my fellow small towners but I chased this career because I am a proponent of truth. I want to be seen as a reliable source of information, I do not want to discredit myself to my community by spewing nonsense just because it is controversial. I do not want to be the one to create a breeding ground of misinformation, social media has that covered.

Social media must be the arch nemesis of small town journalists if ever there was one. The internet has made it so easy to spread a good headline across the globe in minutes. Which is decidedly much faster than it is to do the research and check for credibility of said headline. Social media has given too many with their own agendas a platform to spread misinformation and call themselves journalists. The insanity of it all is that larger news outlets have made rash decisions based on this premise.

Did you know, in 2011 CNN fired 50 full time professional photographers and journalists instead choosing to rely on citizen journalists? In theory, it was a good move but hiring people to be first rather than tell the truth is just another way for misinformation to spread like wildfire. If social media is the number one foe of the small town journalists then large news corporations are a close second.

The news that is widely available, constant, and most importantly instant is the news that wins out – the facts and sources of that “news” are of no consequence. All these factors have lent to an atmosphere of instant lies being more sought after than actual reportive, honest, objective journalism. Biased blogs and large companies with political agendas claim to give local news leading everyday citizens to rely on unreliable sources of information and for sources, like their local newspapers, to bear the brunt of the backlash from those false narratives.

Fake news has run rampant across the nation. People are less likely to believe news outlets than Karen from down the road who may or may not have seen John getting arrested and it was almost, most definitely, because he was running a drug ring out of his garage or something. 

Local news outlets have gone out of business because facts are boring and gossip is fun. Now over half of US daily newspapers are being run by financial firms that publish auto generated and partisan content with no journalistic standards.

Attacks on the validity of journalists have paved the way for partisan views to overshadow facts reported. The internet has given every person a place to hide while they spread their lies. Distrust of the media and especially news media is widespread. This is the climate in which I came into the journalism world as a newspaper reporter.

Now, journalism which was originally meant as a way to inform – to bring light to the dark, has been perverted into a means for those who conceal themselves through the anonymity of the internet to promote their opinions. A way for the rich to run propaganda against those they dislike and sponsor those they want in power under the guise of news. As the little people, the local newspapers and small town journalists, carry the weight of telling the truth and attempt to convince the public to listen to us, to see us, to believe us, to trust us.

I stand in the middle of an old rickety bridge over a boiling lake of lava trying to rebuild a once strong foundation while yelling at readers to help me; at the same time big news corporations stand behind cutting the only rope holding me up.

If this is the only way for it to be then this is the way it will be and with any luck maybe I will get the foundation built before the rope is cut. As a certain sci-fi doctor once said, "Who I am is where I stand and where I stand is where I fall.”