Ethical Journalism Should Bolster Democracy

Bo Kuhn

bk135717@ohio.edu

As the Editorial Board of the New York Times said, "Reporting the news in an open society is an enterprise laced with conflict." In this same column, they talk about Thomas Jefferson's account of the importance of the press in early American society. I think that in the modern age, Jefferson's concerns are compounded by profit-driven newsrooms, which struggle to stay afloat while remaining to hold true to their duty to the public. 

Thomas Jefferson said in his 1804 letter to John Tyler, "Our first object [to create a lasting nation] should therefore be to leave open to [the citizenry] all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found is the freedom of the press." The most basic foundational element of maintaining a democratic society is a free press.

I believe there to be two fundamental criteria to have a free press: (1) The freedom to report factual information about people in positions of prominence and power in society, and (2) freedom from the constraints of for-profit news, and with it the ability to pursue stories that need to be told rather than maintaining a revenue stream in order to stay in business.

To the first point, it is impossible to fulfill the duty of the press if they must kowtow to the interests of those in the upper echelons of society. This means everyone from police officers, to politicians, to business owners. Fundamentally, the press should be holding these people accountable and informing the public about their doings in order to maintain that open flow of information that is fundamental to our democracy. 

According to a 2011 study, "Less-informed voters are found to be significantly more likely to vote for incumbents accused of corruption relative to clean incumbents than their well-informed counterparts." This supports the founder's argument that the free press and their relation with the informed public are paramount to maintaining a functional democracy. 

To the second point, I think that papers of varying sizes (from the New York Times to the Athens Messenger) opting to use paywalls for their digital content and maintain revenue streams is well-meaning, but an ultimately exclusionary practice that comes as a result of profit motives.

 

Gallup, 2019

It is important to remember that trust for American media is at an all-time low, especially amongst republicans, according to a Gallup poll from 2019.

Given this, I think it could be reasonably argued that partisanship is a large factor in trusting media, and a way to avoid a perceived sense of partisanship would be to avoid the sensationalist, profit-driven news model that guides many publications today.