Non-truth Telling News

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The Media today is under the influence of the affluent and powerful group in the society and they are charged with the responsibility of dictating how operations should be run and the kind of information to be disseminated to the people. The truth is defined has having three dimensions and the news is mostly one-dimensional depending with the sensitivity of the matter at hand. Some fields the news is vast and complex and in this case it makes it extremely difficult for the media house to communicate to the public what really happened. The one notable negative aspect of the present day media is the deterioration of professional media and the responsibility of journalism is not considered resulting in the dissemination of news where some information or truth is withheld CITATION Pro18 l 1033 (Probueka, 2018). The main purpose of media messages today is no longer passing of reliable knowledge and a deep reflection but the stimulation of the most preferred emotions especially from the specific target audience. The essay demonstrates how the media is manipulating individuals by not being truthful and the detrimental consequences of their very decisions. The discussion is supported by specific stories that demonstrate how manipulative and how the media may at times exempt some parts in a story.

CNN on Trump Allies Link to Russia

In 2016 during the presidential campaign, CNN were victims of reports that a close ally of president Trump Anthony Scramucci had meetings with people who were close to President Putin. What the article was implying was that during the campaign, Trump may have used his allies to try and get help on Russia in Running a campaign that would lead to him winning the election in his favor. Later on however, CNN had to pull down the post and wrote an apology. The news journalist who also had written the piece resigned voluntarily yet they were among a recently formed task force on the investigative team that would be in charge of the CNN investigations (Sampathkumar, 2017). The news article had already caused tension with people from the Left accusing people from the right of trying to sabotage the election. CNN stated that the article had been uploaded without it following the important steps that were necessary.

Pizzeria Theory

2016 was a period that was filled with false news and a lot of misinformation. Days just before the presidential election was to take place, people walk up to the news that leaders from the Democratic party were running a child trafficking ring and was being aided by two restaurant DC, Comet and Pizzagate. This was after Mr. John Podesta’s email who was Hillary Clintons chief campaign was hacked and according to news source there was a decoded message they were working with James Alefantis who was owner of Comet in child abuse (Kang, 2016). When the mews broke out high profile officials from Republican party helped in spreading of the propaganda including Presidents Trump son. This caused a lot of reaction that a gunman walked in to DC, Comet with a rifle and opened fire, luckily no one was injured. The case shows how unsubstantiated news report could cause harm in a couple of minutes. Mr. Alefantis who was a Democratic supporter and his 40 employees had become caught up in a storm of fake news that even some main media houses were running.

Washington Post and Whitehouse Claims on Iraq weapons

Washington Post in August 2004 admitted to underplaying skepticism when they were reporting on the White House statement on Iraq weapons of mass destruction. The White House pronouncement by Colin Powell stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and most news sources did not do their research but instead created a post that seemed to favor the war. For the Washington Post, the White House pronouncement covered the front page as if the news were true only for the statements to be later found to be erroneous. The Post in its part took blame that it covered more news on why the war was needed as compared to those of the people who were against the war (Gary, 2004). Media has been known at times to favor what the government says especially if it involves information from the Middle East or Africa. Open they will run with what their government states instead of first doing a fact checking.

Martha Stewart plays a critical role as her thoughts on keeping and maintaining high standards can be appropriately borrowed by the press. The standards to which we hold Martha Stewart is not the same standards media is held to. When Martha Stewart was reported to have committed the crime all medias ran the story with panels in various newsroom discussing of her crime and what years she would likely to face. This is what celebrities go through, when it is purported that they have committed a crime all news sources will run the story on how guilty he is likely to be. However, for news sources, when mistakes are made, there are no headlines on these mistakes. What most do is that they offer an apology to the offended party and then pull down the post. This is despite the fact that they may have cause harm to the public by printing of information that was not truthful. The public do not seem to judge as harshly the news article that report the fake news as they do to celebrities such as Martha Stewart. In journalism however, the standards to be maintained in this case are the code of ethics that govern the journalism profession. The ethics include; accountability, truthfulness, honesty and excellence in performance of duties and responsibilities.

The line between falsehood and truth has been blur long enough and it has shaped the attitude of the society at large. The mass media has a responsibility to always give the right information to the general public. In this environment where the press is tactful and is in a symbiotic relationship with the government, the public has not failed to note that the press isn’t performing its duties as it should. The philosophies of Aristotle and Plato on the principle of virtue have been of great importance as they apply in the analysis of the performance of the press. The philosophers emphasized on the virtues of mind, character and sense of honesty. If the virtues are applied in the press, then there will be a definite satisfaction and manipulation of the general public will not be there and hence the press will perform its duties effectively satisfying the people that they serve.

References

Kang, C. (2016, November 22). Fake News Onslaught Targets Pizzeria as Nest of Child-Trafficking. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/technology/fact-check-this-pizzeria-is-not-a-child-trafficking-site.html

Sampathkumar M. (2017, June 26). CNN forced to delete false Trump-Russia story. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cnn-trump-russia-story-deleted-retraction-anthony-scaramucci-money-apology-a7809521.html

Younge, G. (2004, August 13). Washington Post apologizes for underplaying WMD skepticism. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/13/pressandpublishing.usa#maincontent

References.

BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Probueka, D. (2018). Truth and Lies in journalism: A dispute concerning the accurate presentation of information. Sciendo, 81-89.

Sutherland, A. (2012). News and The Whole Truth. The Atlantic.

Vanderwicken, P. (2015). Why the News is Not the Truth. Havard Business Review.

Zakhem, A. J. (2017). Honesty and Intergruty in Business. Springer, 1037-1046.