The Reporters Without Borders 2021 figures for press freedom have been circulating slowly and apathetically as usual. They make interesting reading – If you can tolerate the finding that the press in the US has “minor issues”. Press freedom only actually exists in about 25% of countries worldwide.
What is freedom of the press? You’ll be amazed.
This should be a rhetorical question. It’s now guesswork, in practice. It’s defined as the right to publish news without government interference, for example. That says nothing at all about interference from anyone else.
Freedom of the press may be covered by constitutional rights or the rights of free speech. Still says nothing about the deliberate distortion of information, false information, or rabies promoted by networks.
The history of freedom of the press is equally… annoying. Theory and practice don’t seem to have much in common. The Hearst Press, The National Inquirer, and other interesting flora and fauna are “press”, sure; but where’s the freedom?
2016 and freedom of the press
There’s no need to regurgitate 2016 and its sequel. There is a need to examine exactly what happened. It was the worst year in the history of freedom of the press. Not because of Trump. Not because of denialism and “fake news” in response to everything. Not even because of media political hangers-on exploding people.
Cambridge Analytica did the damage. News became a targetable market, with social media analysis methodologies which basically corrupted the whole idea of news. News became a commodity, like fast food, and about as good for you. This catastrophic event was very nearly the end of freedom of the press.
Algorithms replaced public interest, perhaps for the first time. Algorithmic formulae work on specific tasks. The tasks, in this case, were targeting specific market segments. Nothing at all to do with facts or actual information. This was all about harnessing ignorance and exploiting it.
The next phase was all about market penetration. Having isolated a market segment, a big political one, all formula news was homogenized. Everything contrary was “fake” by definition. Memes about lynching journalists abounded in 2016. Freedom of the press, you say? Where and when?
The result was chaotic. Climate change, Black Lives Matter, environmental carnage, and negative news of any kind became “fake” by default. The marketing was that effective, and ran that deep. It’s ongoing. The algorithm hasn’t gone away. It’s still mass-producing disinformation for what remains of that market segment.
Freedom of what, you ask?
Do disinformation factories qualify as news? Does the fact that only FOX thinks it provides actual journalism matter at all? Is this sort of media a free press or just another propaganda outlet?
Freedom of the press is entirely about accurate information, not fiction. Even in the gutless, spineless wastelands of Western politics and media, you have to eat, drink and breathe facts. Facts tell you whether something’s dangerous or not. Facts are consistent and reliable.
The exact opposite of real news is fake news. What does fake news tell you?
- That the people providing it have never heard of cross-references.
- Collateral information is non-existent.
- That journalistic research and baseline knowledge aren’t much in demand in many publications.
- That the people making up news didn’t do well in day care and are almost incredibly naïve.
- That this type of information can never be accurate, let alone trustworthy.
Information as currency
Knowledge may or may not be power. …But information is definitely major league currency. It’s money incarnate. Ask any financial writer or marketer. What looks good sells. That’s the basis of pseudo-journalism. Nothing to do with freedom of the press.
This is gigantic money in motion. Just ask Alex Jones,
…Which may just be why freedom of the press is so unfashionable. The naivete is on another level here. Looks good has never meant is good. In some cases, the look may be great; it’s just that the product doesn’t exist. That’s pretty common in financial markets, too. No coincidence.
Yes, it’s killing you, very efficiently.
This issue has to be addressed.
“Looking good” also means misrepresenting anything and everything. The COVID pandemic is a good example. This was a torrent of non-information. First, it didn’t exist. It was a hoax. Then it was a Chinese conspiracy. Then it was a Democrat conspiracy. Much later, it was grudgingly admitted to be a problem – A problem about which the purveyors of this information then made a much bigger, lethal, mess. People were to be liberated from their face masks. Hygiene and common sense became tyranny. Over half a million Americans died for this “information”. See any freedom of the press? No? What a coincidence.
This is “freedom of the press”? The right to kill millions of people worldwide with disinformation? Whether the subject is COVID or any of the other global disasters, that’s exactly what it’s doing, 24/7/365.
OK, so what is freedom of the press supposed to be?
Let’s clarify what freedom of the press is supposed to mean:
- The human right to communication.
- The human right to factual information at all times.
- The human right to free speech and personal opinion.
Freedom of the press is specifically NOT about:
- Fictional disinformation.
- Hate campaigns.
- One party only perspectives.
- Suppression or inaccessibility of information to the detriment of anyone.
- Non-coverage of events.
- Non-publication of facts.
Now – How do you stop The Big Lie? There’s only one way – Freedom of the press. That’s simple enough; it’s the law. So do it.
