Larry D. Lauer

Since the president began calling the news media “the enemy of the people” I have been asking colleagues how they think reporters are doing with finding and reporting truth.

One colleague recently told me that he thinks many journalists are doing their best in a very difficult climate. But he does not understand why so many television anchors still put opposing experts on camera to shout at each other, and why some journalists still report wild assertions as if they are reasonable. And also, why do rallies based on personal attacks and double-speak still get so much coverage?

His remarks reminded me that traditional journalism education has always taught reporters to give equal opportunity to all sides of controversies. This obviously makes sense. But in an all new era of nonstop lies, gross exaggerations, and personal attacks, should this practice be revisited?

In other words, in today’s confusing media ecosystem, should the national news media focus more specifically on fact-checking and reporting the results in real-time, no matter the source?

The president’s two-hour double-speak at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will connect with different people in different ways. For some, it simply will be remembered as harmless entertainment. For others, it will be remembered as the sad cries of a person losing his mind. And for others, it will only have been more of the same from the person they chose to support during the campaign.

But is there an overall truth that should be unpacked and reported as the main story from this perplexing CPAC extravaganza? I think so… see Lesson 477, “Word Salad” leadership.

That said, we must also remember that even nonprofit news often operates as a business. All news organizations are influenced by TV ratings, newspaper readership, celebrity power, and advertising/subscriber/fund-raising revenue. Could it be that in the final analysis the president’s daily antics are the best “profit” producers the news media ever had? Sadly, this too often complicates reporting only truth.