Donald Trump’s reported dressing-down of an invited, closed-door gathering of the media elite has drawn the expected howls of outrage from the titans of the Fourth Estate. It has also served to illustrate the continuing disruption of the mainstream press’s longstanding role as provider, arbiter and gatekeeper of news and information.
The Internet, the “digital revolution,” the “information age” – whatever moniker you prefer – has already made fundamental changes in the way we learn, share and think. In a time when technological “disruptions” are reshaping our lives in ways few imagined, the changes in how information flows are, to traditionalist elites, among the most upsetting.
October 31, 2017 will mark the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. His challenge against the corruption of the Catholic Church spawned the Reformation, the rise of Protestantism and, germanely, the notion of apostolic succession. Or, in lay terms, the idea that heaven can only be entered via the Church.
So it goes with the Information Reformation. The Press has long held a special place in society. It kept watch over the government, it brought information to the people, it shone disinfecting light on corruption, crime, abuses of power and political dishonesty. It maintained (not perfectly, but nevertheless) an adversarial role with government and government officials.
The Press, unfortunately, has strayed from its role and its ethics in recent decades. Its adversarial role vs government became an adversarial role vs part of government i.e. one of the two major political parties and poles on the political spectrum. They chose to become active shills for the opposing part of government. Most news organizations sided with the Left and the Democratic Party, some with the Right and the Republican Party. This retreat from principle became steadily more overt as time marched on, reached a fever pitch during the Obama years, and figuratively “burst the dam” during the 2016 election. Many news organizations simply stopped pretending to journalistic objectivity, and instead declared that matters were at such a critical juncture that they had to editorialize their basic news functions to combat what they perceived as an existential threat to the world.
No matter the justification, such an abandonment of principle is the placing of self-interest ahead of duty. It is corruption, plain and simple. It mirrors the corruption of the Catholic Church (especially the selling of indulgences) that prompted the Reformation. It has led to the abandonment by many of the equivalent of apostolic succession i.e. the presumption that news can only be sourced from the big mainstream press organizations.
Trump’s use of social media (e.g. Twitter, Youtube) to speak directly to the voters is only the most recent and most obvious abandonment of the notion of the Press as information gatekeeper. Just as Protestants embrace access to God and Heaven outside the regulated avenues of a Church, today’s information seekers can freely pursue their news without it being curated by the big-name Press.
The Church didn’t take well to the Reformation, and over a century of discord and strife ensued. The Press isn’t taking well to the Information Reformation, as the whinging about Trump’s excoriation of its high priests recently illustrated. It remains to be seen what the Press decides to do, and while there have been some tepid mentions of restoring journalistic ethics, it’s hard to imagine that the high priests have either the desire or wherewithal to carry out a modern Council of Trent, or even what such a Council might produce.
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Brilliant!
Than you, Peter.
This corruption of journalism didn’t happen in a vacuum – J-schools allowed and even encouraged their students to indulge in the credo that they were becoming journalists to make the world a better place, instead of being objective arbiters of events. Combined with the rise of infotainment – as news organizations came under pressure to turn profits instead of being loss leaders for networks – are two big reasons why we’re at this sad state of affairs.