The news industry has always existed in a state of balance – sales or ratings are balanced against trustworthiness, sensationalism against actual news content, biases and opinions against hard facts. The news must create a product that is exciting enough to draw an audience, but provides the consumer with integrity and truthfulness.

Our country has a proud history of newsmen and women. We can trace America's news linage straight back to the incendiary editorial’s of Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette. During the 1890’s, there was the muckraking of Upton Sinclair and his exposé’s of Yellow Journalism. Later, there was Edward Murrow who bravely reported from London during the German Blitz and eventually worked to have Senator Joseph McCarthy censured.

Obviously, these are only a fraction of the honorable news providers in American history, but each is representative of their time period, and all are revered. They rallied against things bigger than themselves, the government, propaganda, and even the news media complex. These were the industry whistleblowers that upset the status quo in order to inform the population. They ignored personal risk because they truly believed in what they were saying.

Today, we respect the men who made these contributions, and at the same time ignore what they stood for. The American appetite for infotainment has become insatiable – especially among Millennials.

Take Chris Altchek, CEO of millennial news site Mic, who said, “We write with a truly authentic voice, and you can see the issues that young people care about.” But looking at these articles, and even their titles, it’s easy to wonder if what’s being provided is actually news? The Yellow Journalism headlines that grabbed attention during the 1800’s have evolved into share-worthy click bait titles that draw social media users. “This Ex-Gay Survivor Had an Amazing Courtroom Message for LGBT Teens” and “This is How Bob Marley’s Pot Brand is Trailblazing the Cannabis Industry,” are some examples.

Another common millennial news site is BuzzFeed. As an information consuming public, should we really have our standards so low that we devour news from the same people who produced intellectual, groundbreaking, pieces such as “21 Times Mom's Proved They Were History's Greatest Invention,” and “We Know Your Celebrity Crush Based On Your Pizza Preference.”

Is BuzzFeed really the same site we should be learning about Greece’s economic problems from? Are they even qualified to bring us that information? I do not know whether the person writing about Greece has a degree in economics, journalism or history, and I have no way of knowing whether the article I read is oversimplified or just wrong, and if an article is retracted, I will likely never know that either.

The Internet is scary because there is so much I cannot find out about where my news is coming from. But that’s not even what scares me most. In the last several years several mainstream news anchors or personalities have served suspensions for mistruths or deception – Brian Williams from NBCNightly News and Lara Logan from CBS’ acclaimed news program 60 Minutes are two examples. It worries me that perhaps the appeal of news sites designed more for entertainment than information have forced news media in general attempt branding itself as more of a "fun" option.

I applaud 60 Minutes and NBC for suspending Lara Logan and Brian Williams. But it is fair for us to ask if other media outlets have the same internal standards. Lara Logan’s suspension was for airing an interview about events at Benghazi, though the interviewee lied throughout. And while Logan and her producer are ultimately to blame for not properly vetting their source and his account, it seems as though the mistake was not intentional (though the story did contribute to sensationalism). Compare this to another incident – this time with BuzzFeed’s Viral Political Editor, Benny Johnson. Johnson wasn’t fired until after he was found to have committed over 40 instances of plagiarism. BuzzFeed admits they must be, “more vigilant in the future” and stated “we will also change our onboarding procedures to make sure that the high standards of training that comes with our fellowship program extends to everyone who arrives at BuzzFeed, and particularly to those without a background in traditional journalism.” Even so, I doubt I am the only one worried that an apparently reputable news source employed a political editor, who was neither educated in traditional journalism nor properly trained.

To say that millennial news media is the only thing to blame for the extremism in news is to ignore that much older and well-entrenched options can be just as loathsome. It is not unfounded to say that the well-entrenched options can be worse even, providing a service that sometimes does not even register as news. Examples include Rush Limbaugh referring to a Georgetown Law student as a “slut,” Rolling Stone calling Iowa’s Steve King “unusually stupid even for a congressman,” or radio host Jan Mickelson asking “What’s wrong with slavery,” when asked about his plan to for immigrants to become state property.

This is all to say that I think we need to strive for more. We should strive to be unsatisfied with click-bait titles and flashy writing. We should demand the news and we should demand journalistic integrity. As a generation millennials have the opportunity to be more informed and well connected than anyone at any other time in history - so I think that we should set our standards for journalism slightly higher than the standards we have for celebrity gossip. Demand statistics and substance, not biases and open-ended headlines. Demand that these media outlets honor their roots and report the news. Support news when you see it, and ignore the trash. That’s how we will become the informed public we should be.

All Quotes Courtesy of

*http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/07/buzzfe...

*http://www.wired.com/2015/06/stop-millennial-niche...

*http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-asks-lara-logan-to...

*http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/donald-t...

*http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/08/19/ia-radio-h...

*http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/08/35-hateful...