The
Purpose of
Journalism
JOURNALISM IS ESSENTIAL IN A DEMOCRACY by Corinne Boyer
O
regon State Sen. Jeff Kruse
updates his email newsletter
weekly. On Feb. 3, the Rose-
burg Republican wrote that
he wanted to focus on the ex-
ecutive order issued by Presi-
dent Donald Trump on immi-
gration. “The reaction to the
order by the media, special
interest groups and many politicians is a perfect example
of the campaign of misinformation and lies being waged
against this administration,” he writes.
Kruse is not alone in his rhetoric, Trump has lambasted
the media ad nauseam at a national level. On Feb. 17, the
president tweeted, “The FAKE NEWS media (failing
@NYTimes @CNN @NBCNews) and many more is
not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people.
SICK!” He later deleted the tweet, according to The New
York Times.
University of Oregon Professor Tim Gleason says
journalism is important to a democracy because “to have
an informed public and informed voters, one needs to have
journalists who are finding information and reporting that
information — especially if you’re serving a watchdog
function in terms of government activities and things that
are being done that will impact the public otherwise it’s
very difficult for us to make informed decisions.”
Gleason echoes The American Press Institute’s
guide to The Elements of Journalism, which states, “The
purpose of journalism is thus to provide citizens with the
information they need to make the best possible decisions
about their lives, their communities, their societies and
their governments.”
Eugene Weekly interviewed Sen. Kruse to learn more
about his view of the media. He says, “There is no such
‘The reaction to the order
by the media,
special interest groups
and many politicians
is a perfect example
of the campaign of
misinformation
and lies being waged against
this administration.’
— OREGON STATE SENATOR JEFF KRUSE
thing as unbiased because everybody’s got a built-in bias.
If you don’t have a bias, you aren’t thinking.”
Kruse says some stories get covered and some don’t. “I
do think that a lot of the mainstream media do tend to lean
relatively far to the left on a lot of issues,” he says.
In his newsletter, Sen. Kruse writes that the initial
executive immigration order wasn’t “a ban on Muslim
immigration.” He explains: “Basically what it was, was
a temporary ban from people coming from seven specific
countries from coming in to the United States until we had
a better vetting process and that was all it was. It wasn’t an
attack on Muslims.”
Media coverage of the executive order detailed how the
RESOURCES ON FAKE NEWS
travel ban was implemented — it happened while people
were in route to the U.S. — and gave detailed accounts
from people with proper immigration forms who were
detained from international flights at airports with no
warning.
Covering the order and its aftermath is another
necessary function of journalism. “It must serve as
an independent monitor of power,” according to The
Elements of Journalism. “Being an independent monitor
of power means ‘watching over the powerful few in
society on behalf of the many to guard against tyranny
…’”
Politicians denouncing news is dangerous and
corrosive to democracy, Gleason says. “Certainly
presidents and many public officials are frequently not
happy with reporting and the work that journalists do,
but there’s a difference between arguing or disputing
the facts of a story and, as the president has been doing,
really trying to undercut the legitimacy of journalism in
general,” he says.
Asked about what he sees as a possible solution to
the way mainstream media cover news, Kruse says he
doesn’t know, citing First Amendment rights that entitle
anybody to say anything they want.
Kruse says, “I think from my perspective a lot of the
stuff I see on TV and I read in papers anymore I basically
take with a grain of salt, and I’m assuming it’s not hard
news.”
For journalists to address the distrust repeated by
politicians, Gleason recommends following best practices
and the ethical standards of the profession. “And continue
to believe at the end of the day organizations that are
credible and continue to work to be credible will be
believed and there’s really not very much else one can
do,” he says.
The Eugene Public Library has tips on how to discern fake news
at eugene.libguides.com/fake-news.
And the UO School of Journalism and Communication lays out
its advice here: bit.ly/2nq9SnG.
eugeneweekly.com • March 16, 2017
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