Bruce Bartlett - The Truth Matters: A Citizen’s Guide to Separating Facts from Lies and Stopping Fake News in Its Tracks

Copyright 2017 by Bruce Bartlett

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bartlett, Bruce R., 1951- author.

Title: The truth matters : a citizens guide to separating facts from lies and stopping fake news in its tracks / Bruce Bartlett.

Description: First edition. | California, N.Y. : Ten Speed Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017028338 (print) | LCCN 2017029755 (ebook) |

Subjects: LCSH: JournalismHistory21st century. | Attribution of news. | News audiences.

Classification: LCC PN4815.2 (ebook) | LCC PN4815.2 .B37 2017 (print) | DDC 070.90/51dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028338

Hardcover ISBN9780399581168

Ebook ISBN9780399581175

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To all the journalists who gave their lives to bring us the news.

P eople have never been happy with the news media, always blaming it for lying, misinforming, and being unfair to one side or the other. Thomas Jefferson expressed views on this subject that many people today no doubt would share. In an 1807 letter to John Norvell, Jefferson wrote,

To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only. Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.

I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.

The complaint that the news media has a built-in bias is an old oneand there is truth in it. In Jeffersons day, newspapers were often owned by political parties and were very overt in their bias. Nowadays, the argument is that the major media has a liberal bias. The major media has long been based in cities, where people tend to be more socially liberal. Additionally, people with a liberal disposition have tended to gravitate to journalism as a profession.

Media consolidation also tended to make newspapers more liberal. In any town with more than one newspaper, one would usually be conservative, if only for competitive reasons. Partisan affiliation and ideological compatibility in editorials and news judgment and among columnists was one reason people subscribed to a particular paper. But as newspapers have closed, those with a conservative bent have tended to be the first to go, because they were usually the afternoon papers. Those with no competition tend toward bland mushiness when it comes to politics.

Radio and television news coverage always tended to be more evenhanded, because news presentation focused on breaking stories for which audio or video was available. It didnt lend itself to commentary or editorializing. Moreover, there was a government rule called the fairness doctrine that required both sides to be present when political endorsements were made or opinions expressed. But the main effect of this rule was to discourage the presentation of any opinions at all, rather than waste precious air time presenting alternative viewpoints.