If you’re thinking President Donald Trump and his entourage might really be onto something about the “dishonest” media and fake news, I offer you the word “underway” as proof that it’s all a lie.
For months, Trump, his supporters and associates have berated the media for being lying, incompetent, conspiring criminals who are “enemies of the people.”
Trump hardly invented newspaper-hate. He simply expanded the notion and has made it the leading strategy of his presidency. And it’s caught on across the nation. Hardly an hour goes by that creatures of the Twitterverse, Facebook and the vast galaxy inside the intertubes don’t bash what we write.
Like every newspaper, our Twitter feed is filled with allegations of “lies” “biased” “unobjective” “#LeftWingRag” “#FakeNews” #AuroraPravda” “dishonest” “unamerican” — and that’s aside from the obscene word-bombs tossed all over our social media and website.
One reader recently tweets: “As long as @EditorDavePerry is in charge, I think the @aurorasentinel qualifies as #fakenews.”
Another: “@aurorasentinel is a case study in the growing distrust in the media due to inane lefty bias.”
We regularly are smeared with things like “#NotMyPaper #SubscriptionCancel #LiberalLogic #lyingmedia and #RIPjournalism.
I won’t wade into the ocean of stories and editorials about why Trump and his supporters are working so hard to discredit the media, other than it’s obvious and a tried-and-true tactic of endless nefarious regimes around the globe.
I just want you to know it’s bullshit. Saying it’s all lies just won’t cut it in a world of “alternate facts.” It’s bullshit, which is a hotly debated departure from our style on profanity in print. It’s justified.
First off, journalists rarely agree about anything. In our newsroom, we’ve had long and tense arguments over the nuance of words in stories and editorials focusing on both benign topics as well as burners like immigration, police brutality, government spending, health care and everything else you read about here.
What drives these arguments is the demand for accuracy, which we impose on ourselves. Right or wrong, we make decisions based on what offers the best representation of the truth to our readers.
To dismissively say that there’s a vast conspiracy among tens of thousands of American journalists to create an alternate reality for the sole purpose of advancing an underground political agenda is absolute bullshit.
We can’t agree on whether “underway” should be one word or two. For the record, I still believe it’s always two, unless you’re talking about a military flotilla that is “underway.” But the grammar style gods at the Associated Press say otherwise, changing decades of good sense and tradition. Fools. The argument continues to break up newsroom camaraderies across the nation. Conspire to snuff the Susan Rice story? Oh, please.
Every story we write and publish is scrutinized first by the writer and then at least one editor for whether it meets our standard of “accuracy” in details and as a whole. While seasoned reporters rarely miss the boat, it’s exceedingly rare that a story doesn’t get adjustments.
Am I a liberal? Hell, yes. My heart bleeds for every furry creature chased out of its habitat by unchecked growth. Except raccoons. Evil little things that poop everywhere and warrant extinction. But I’m an obsessed skier and unapologetic atheist, too, yet I manage to keep that out of our news stories. Journalists from all over the political and psychological spectrum are able to do the same thing.
For the sake of argument, let’s say journalists could all set aside what we actually can agree is Job One: striving for truth and accuracy. And let’s say we started bending headlines, ledes and details to make it look like Trump is an idiot, rather than let the facts speak for themselves.
Do you not think for one second that journalists would immediately and gleefully rat each other out? Nobody keeps a secret worse than a reporter. Nobody. We get into this business because we like to tattle and tell. Sure, American journalism is fraught with all kinds of faults and weaknesses, and one of them is our real and perceived demand to be first and best with a story, any story. There isn’t a journalist among us who would sell their soul, if they had one, to be first with the story about Barack Obama secretly raising money for the NRA. Like ski bums on a powder day, when an hot exclusive comes my way, I have no friends.
The story of Aurora Sentinel Editor Dave Perry changing facts to distort the truth so that our reading public believes something that’s not true? The line starts here in my newsroom with every reporter who would gleefully drop a dime to Kyle Clark at @Next on 9 News or Westword to let them know what’s what.
I can guarantee you it’s the same and more at bigger news operations across the country.
Not that we don’t get things wrong. And universities are funded by studies about political bent, perception, story selection, photo placement and more.
But make stuff up or maliciously contrive our work as an act of hate or political manipulation?
Bullshit.
It’s important for you to know this as governments near and far think they see this media conspiracy strategy as a practical political tactic. You don’t have to be a meteorologist to predict a nasty storm when the black clouds are rolling over you. Expect hurricane-force bovine feces from just about every corner of government for a while, and especially from Congress and the White House.
And trust that here and at every reputable news organization across the country, you’ll be the first to know, from us, when real journalists get drawn to the dark side, and when we get it wrong.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com