Eleven Years

You would think that after eleven years of doing this, I'd get used to the idea of journalism ranking right up there with "scum of the earth" when it comes to how society can sometimes view your career path.

And for the most part, you power through that insinuation.  You shrug off the really vile stuff and take in the constructive criticism.  But lately, it feels like the anti-media rhetoric has gotten worse.  It's more than just phone calls, which have escalated substantially over the last three or four years in particular.  It's more than just the emails and social media.  I know I shouldn't let the keyboard warriors bother me, yet they do.

The trouble is: it's my livelihood.  Over the last eleven years, I've prided myself on being as unbiased as humanly possible.  I try to see every side of every debate, even if I don't necessarily agree with it.  I've asked the tough questions of politicians from all sides of the spectrum.  I've upset supporters on every side as well (even family members).  Why?  Because that's what I do.

This isn't an "oh woe is me" blog.  This is a blog to open your eyes, as there are so many other great reporters and journalists who do the same thing, day in and day out.  Yet they all get railroaded as being part of the "lying media." And most stay silent, not really wanting to put up with the litany of responses, typically of the nameless, faceless, anonymous variety.  Who can blame them?

But there came a moment for me this week where I couldn't stand by and watch it anymore.

It actually started when NDP Human Services Minister Irfan Sabir stood up in the legislature and said, not once but twice, that Post Media's Paula Simons is "passionate but doesn't have all of the facts."

This was all in regards to the highly-emotional discussion about Serenity, the four-year-old Alberta girl who died under a veil of secrecy in the provincial care system.  This was a cabinet minister calling into question the integrity of a reporter's extensive work into a specific topic, one where she had to scrape her way along just to get the facts she did.  And this minister was part of the chain of command that forced that reporter to go digging like she did in the first place.  Does something not sound wrong about this whole situation?  Where are ALL of the facts then, if the reporter doesn't have them all?  When will people get the answers they deserve?

But that just turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.

I lost it on Twitter after watching some of the commentary from a rally in Calgary this weekend.  Admittedly, I should have just avoided it and turned off my phone.  But I couldn't.  And really, it was only one comment that really bothered me.

Apparently, "the media doesn't report actual news."

Reporters covering this event got boo'd and were the target of a verbal barrage.  They stood there and took it.  They could have easily walked out the door as they didn't have to take that.  But they all knew the minute they walked out was the minute that they'd get railroaded anyways.  So they sat there and took it.  They were berated for doing their jobs.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: there is no such thing as "the media."  It's not like all the different outlets and reporters get together in a room, smoking cigars and drinking wine while determining what stories they'll be covering today and how they'll be covered.  I know I'm going to offend a few people here, but "the media" is a term used by the lazy.  Instead of calling out a specific outlet (or outlets) for having a viewpoint that's different than your own (or reporting on something that isn't favorable to your own preconceived notions or causes), the lazy thing to do is just throw out "the media" and then you have all your bases covered.

"The media doesn't report actual news."  That apparently got a STANDING OVATION at the rally.  That one stings.

Eleven years in this business, covering everything from city council and local crime to education and good news stories, but apparently it's not actual news.  Floods, wildfires, murder trials, you name it.  Not actual news.

I went on a bit of a Twitter rant, with essentially the same message.  The replies had common themes like "well we all know that no one trusts the media anymore", "you reap what you sow" and something about "the left-wing media bias."  To which I asked people to point out where my bias has shown.  Give me a specific example.  Yet, no one could actually point me in that direction, and then it became "well, we know 80% of the media is left-wing biased."  Some would even admit that "well maybe you're not one of them."  But you see, the damage is already done.  You've said what you meant to say, without doing any background checks whatsoever, just so you can throw out your over-generalization that makes you feel better about your own personal stance.  Good job.

It has gotten to that point that I firmly believe that we could report that the sky is blue, and someone will proclaim "don't believe the media lies, the sky is red."  And you know what, it feels like they would gain a lot of traction there.

Never before have I seen FACTS be questioned so much.  Never before have I seen basic human decency get tossed out the door in the name of "freedom of speech."  And never before have I been so disappointed in so many different respects.

I honestly have no idea how to fix it.  Because I (and every other good, honest reporter I know) could stand at the top of a mountain and proclaim that everything we've done has been to the best of our abilities.  We will cite example after example and it will be the absolute truth.  Yet, so many people now have it entrenched in their minds that "the media" (aka reporters) are not to be trusted and we're obviously lying.  Frankly, we've allowed ourselves to pick-and-choose who we follow, what we believe and then talk about it all in our own echo chamber, void of any differing viewpoint or opinion.  And it makes us all believe that what we're seeing and reading is true.

I've said every now and again that I'm on a "mission to civilize", much like Will McAvoy in "The Newsroom."

But what happens if so many people have no interest in being civilized?  What happens when few people are actually interested in having a real discussion about the issues plaguing our society?  What happens if the preconceived notions and political ideologies have become so strong, that there's no breaking through?

One definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and over again while expecting a different outcome."