In this post I again want to make a point about “news”, which is that it is “good” when it is a published or broadcasted statement that is factually true and objective in the style of its content.
As I professional writer who has a lot of experience and some graduate-level training in journalism, I know the basic principles that govern the presentation of good news. I’m sure that most professional journalists with the major media outlets and newspapers know these principles that should define their presentations of the facts and the style for their news reports regarding the matters upon which they are reporting. They know the difference between “facts” and “opinions”. They know how to research for data regarding what they seek to report and the importance of being able to cite the sources for what they state in their published or broadcast in their reports. They know the difference between reports of “news” and statements of “editorial opinions”.
The really sad state regarding what is being published and broadcast in our media today is due to the acceptance of really bad standards for news and public statements that are made among the people in our society and the culture in which we live. There is too much acceptance for lies in our public statements. People are too willing to issue their personal opinions in loud and repetitious announcements irregardless of their relationship to any facts or standards for respectful discourse. And too many people apparently don’t believe that it is important to cite any widely accepted respected sources for what they declare. So too many professional journalists have just neglected the application for the principles of good news in which they have been trained to become “popular” or commercially acceptable to those who pay for the news that they distribute.
So the people are subjected to an overwhelming amount of bad news, fake news, subjective opinions, lies, and political “correct” statements that they hear or read every day in their efforts to understand what is going on in this world in which we all live. There is a huge need for “good news” these days, reports of what is happening and being proposed by our leaders that are composed and distributed in accord with the principles for what is true and respectable standards for such news. How can these standards now be implemented by the journalists who feed us our daily diets of “news”? Let’s talk about this.