Whose nose grows?

Emily O'Flynn
ef856814@ohio.edu

"Pinocchio" is the classic story of how a wooden puppet's nose grows whenever he tells a lie. We are told this story as children to help our moral compasses develop. Now that we are older, we are debating more than just what is a lie, but also who the liar is.

(Image via coxandforkum.com)

It has been heavily debated whether news sources are credible. This argument has been around for quite some time. According to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, "The only profession mentioned in the Constitution, the press has long been seen as essential to the idea of democratic self-governance. Free speech, enshrined by the First Amendment, is one of the bulwarks of individual liberty and equality."

We, as American consumers of media, are now forced to choose: is our president lying or are journalists lying? Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism at New York University in Manhattan, noted,  "It seems that journalism is attacked for not being balanced more than it's being attacked for not getting things right, or not being intelligent, or not being wise."

Objectivity is crucial in effective storytelling for individuals of a society. If we do not strive for unbiased content, we are doing a disservice to our audiences who trust our content. Americans shouldn't have to choose if they believe the information the president is telling them or the news outlets that report the information.

In a critical piece from the Columbia Journalism Review, David Uberti, CJR states, "With Trump, for example, it's difficult to say whether he is actively deceptive or just so shamelessly unprepared that it gives off the tangerine-colored aura of deception." Having such an unorthodox leader of our country leads us to further not trust the government.

From here, it is difficult to understand how we move forward. In school, we are directly informed that journalism is a dying field. The lack of trust in the objectivity contributes to the deterioration of the industry. I question, what needs to happen for the American public to restore its faith in the media? Do we need to uncover another Watergate scandal to put us back on top?

Professor Smith, an established leader of the Society of Professional Journalists added, "Most people are willing to understand and listen to both sides, to the possibilities of compromise in both the liberal and the conservative management of government." He goes on to say, "So why would any organization want to alienate a huge segment of the population by suddenly deciding that we want to punt on neutral reporting and instead feed the beast on the left and right?"

At this point, it's more than just listening to the left and the right. To be more informed about what is going on in the country, we need to strive to listen to everyone's point of view, the current administration and how the media portrays those perspectives. In that sense, I believe we will all be more able to come to educated decisions about the future of the United States of America. If we, as Americans, don't have the decency to do our own research and form opinions based on it, then we are lying to ourselves. Rather than watching our own noses grow, we will instead watch the trust in the media and the trust in our government rapidly crumble.