By: The Editorial Board
As most of you may have heard or seen, dozens of local news stations had their anchors read the exact same speech.
Many news sources, including the New York Times, have reported that it was a forced read by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns over 190 stations around the country.
The speech, which was focused on fake news and promised the viewers honesty in their reporting of events. Their words proved ironic considering how many others were reporting the exact same speech across the nation.
The NY Times is not the only source critiquing the speech, as like them, many others have called this move by the broadcast group “insidious” and flat out a danger to our democracy.
This event has proven just how compromised the field of journalism has become in the recent years. In order to align themselves with a political agenda, news sources have compromised their ethics and responsibility to the viewers.
Truth is, politics change constantly, as do the people in power. We should not be compromising our morals for them, because at the end of the day, it is the public that is most affected and it is them we, as journalists, owe our dedication to.
Journalists, and all media, have a responsibility to the public. Their purpose should be to relay information and make people aware of the prominent issues in our nation and around the world.
Still, it appears that too many news sources are highly influenced by money and swayed or controlled by those in power.
This incident is only one of many that prove this notion, but it is one that is most explicitly evident.
As a newspaper, The Falcon does promise honesty, facts, and accuracy.
But we do this, not because some higher power tells us it’s what the readers want to hear, or because it works for any one particular agenda, but rather because we understand the significance of the truth.
We, the writers, the editors, and the whole staff are affected by current events just like our readers. We refuse to compromise that to fulfill any one agenda.
It’s time to remember who we are here to serve and what the true purpose of journalism is, and find our way back, as a field, to fulfilling that purpose.