Remember when the truth came out because there were old-school reporters with sterling journalistic ethics who were wed to their duty to report fairly like a doctor to the Hippocratic Oath? And they worked for editors/publishers/CEOs who shared their passion for unbiased news?...

Ok, so it’s never been that rosy. But it used to be the goal. Journalism has been sacrificed on the pyre of idealistic warfare between millionaires & billionaires & their media empires. It matters now because the nice cozy confirmation bubbles of boutique news were only cozy...

during peace time. In war (foreign or domestic, idealistic or military) you need a cult. What do media empires do to create cultish patronage? Stoke rage. Make people fearful and suspicious. Convince them the world is on fire and you have the only hose. These media entities...

will not stop stoking fear because then they would lose. And the owners and CEOs of these million & billion-dollar machines aren’t in the game to lose. Without the ragged beat reporters of days-gone-by, weary from late-night deadlines and years of doggedly developing sources...

how is our news reported? Easy. Surveillance footage and citizen cellphones. A camera in every hand has replaced a chicken in every pot. That sounds simple enough. Eyewitness accounts and real-time footage should be accurate. We all should be able to believe our eyes? What’s...

controversial about that? Anyone who is a fan of any pro-sport with instant replay knows exactly how controversial that can be. If you want the guy to be in, he didn’t step out of bounds. If you’re rooting for the other team, he did. C’mon Refs! Networks cherry-pick their images

and add hysterical hyperbolic color commentary. It’s like the Simpsons episode on soccer where the American broadcaster is losing his mind from boredom & the European broadcaster is losing his mind from excitement. Same soccer match. Politicians do the same thing. They purposely

overplay their hands/overplay the moment for their advantage. The people then have to choose. There isn’t a neutral source they can consult for clarity. They have to choose. This leads to mistrust among people who know each other in life. Families fighting, neighbors mistrusting

neighbors. How could you think that?!? This is where the source-shaming comes in. “Oh, you probably watch x-network. Don’t you know that’s fake news. Lies all lies!” And everyone has a point. The amount of editorializing, advocacy, errors in a rush to hystericalize and win the...

cycle makes a fair argument for anyone to say “They’re lying!” about any side. Who loses in this war? Well, the soldiers - of course. The generals don’t even have their boots dirty. Boots aren’t allowed in their ivory towers. The gaslit and exhausted citizenry will likely never