As someone who spent four years of her life dedicated to journalism, I have to say that I’m incredibly disappointed with the media today. I hate to admit it, but I prefer to not watch or read the news these days because of the unprofessional, biased pieces that are put out. Instead of being informed of the actual facts, all we get are exaggerated, untrue information and reporters/writers’ opinions. With people these days being so quick to believe what they hear on the news, the nature of the media right now is extremely dangerous.
I’m not saying that every single reporter, journalist, or writer is a liar or is guilty of acting like this. Unfortunately, the honest, professional journalists who just want to expose the truth are few and far between today. It seems like every year mainstream media is more and more skewed away from the truth of the facts.
Everyday I read articles that are completely biased by the author’s opinions. Obviously, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, I’m exerting my First Amendment right to state my opinion right now. But when you take on the responsibility of a journalist, to tell everyone the God-honest facts, you better do just that. Save your opinion for an editorial, because it has no place in the news. If you’re going to write a news article and put your own opinion in it, you should explicitly state that it is your opinion. Nobody in a place of authority like that should be sharing their opinion and claiming it as fact.
Why are facts so misrepresented and skewed? If you don’t have all the facts, don’t write about it. Don’t makeup facts or exaggerate the facts because you want a story and you want it out now. I completely understand that news, especially important or breaking news, needs to be shared in a timely manner. I’m not saying that the media should withhold important information just because they don’t have all the facts.
You can still write an article or put a story on the news; just don’t include information you don’t know. Putting out false information only leads to misjudgment. In today’s world when everyone is so easily offended and so quick to accuse other people, why would you publish anything as the truth if you’re not sure that it’s true?
And why are we so busy attacking others? If you state the honest facts, people will make their own opinions. It’s completely unfair for you to force your own opinions down someone’s throat when it’s your job to let them know what honestly happened. Furthermore, if you’re going to make an assumption about something in a news piece when you don’t even know the facts it’s only going to cause problems.
Journalism, the news, and the media were never meant to be this way. The world today, now more than ever, needs a source that they can trust. I need a source of information that I know will be honest, unbiased and true to the facts. I don’t want to hear anything but the truth, and I can make my own opinions based on honest facts. That’s all I want from the media, and I hope that someday this dream will come true.