Speaking Truth to Power

The idea of “speaking truth to power” has traditionally been a powerful driving force for journalists. Sadly, I don’t see may of my colleagues doing this anymore. With some noticeable examples, none of which appear as part of content from traditional corporate publishers or media producers, everyone is almost without question taking for granted what companies and government officials tell them. If companies are criticised, it is very seldomly directed against the most powerful players in the field and if it is, only when popular opinion has already turned on them. Government policy is presumed to be in the best interest of everyone. Unless the government in question has been agreed upon by the opinion mainstream to be evil or at least generally motivated by bad intentions.

But that’s not how the world works. Any sufficiently big company – certainly all multi-national corporations – perpetuate untruths as part of PR efforts. And certainly all governments intentionally mislead their citizens – either via direct propaganda efforts or by simply keeping silent about certain things. One look at how an intelligence agency operates makes this clear. Now, this is mostly presumed to be in the interest of the country’s citizens, and it often is. But many times, it isn’t – as one look at the history of any contemporary country will clearly demonstrate.

It’s the job of the press, at least in my understanding, to never believe a corporation or a government. As a journalist, you simply can’t leave it up to history to decide if the press release you reworded was a lie or not. It’s our job to find out. Or to try as hard as we can, because often it is a futile mission. But what I see from most of my colleagues these days is that they aren’t even trying. They’ve given up. They’re not speaking truth to power. They are parroting power. Only choosing to jump on a crusade against a tiny sliver of power when there’s nothing to lose and everyone is in on it already.

This makes me ashamed of most of the people in my profession. They’re egocentric, lazy and defensive when called out on their bullshit. When looking for role models, maybe trying to be a bit less like Lev Mekhlis and a bit more like Hunter S. Thompson would be a good idea.

This entry was originally published in ⇒ my gemlog in the Gemini space.