How to build a radically truthful news outlet
The old ways don’t work. Time to declare war on the liars.
If journalists were succeeding, the American public would be well informed and able to fend off the lies of Republican politicians and their vast disinformation network.
News flash: Journalists are not succeeding.
That’s why the tactics of the news industry must change. It’s not enough for journalists to operate in a bubble and produce their own factual reports. They must also take aggressive action to counteract the twisted reality being pushed by others. They must become radically truthful, following these rules of conduct:
Let no lie reach the audience unchallenged.
We see it all the time on TV: Donald Trump and his co-conspirators deliver a string of lies, and the anchors correct one or two of them – or none of them – while letting all the others implant in the public mind. The news media act as if they’re helpless, but they’re not. They should adopt a firm goal to never let anyone use their platform to lie to their audience uncorrected.
Get the fact check as close to the lie as possible.
TV networks could do this in a variety of ways. They could put graphics on the screen that call out the falsehoods in real time. Or they could hit the pause button on presidential speeches and explain why a statement was false, then resume broadcasting the speech. In written stories, a good sentence would be: “Trump called Chicago the ‘most dangerous city in the world, by far,’ which it is not, by far.”
Interrupt aggressively.
A common trick of liars is to make a false statement and then keep talking and talking and talking, sometimes changing the subject so the lie seems too far in the past for an interviewer to return to it. So interrupt them in the middle of their remarks, even in the middle of sentences. That’s not rude – it’s radically truthful.
Boot people off the air if they repeatedly lie.
TV hosts should fact-check liars in real time, and if guests don’t accept the proven facts presented, the interview should end immediately – and they shouldn’t be invited back. Major media don’t do this because they’d rather maintain access to powerful people than be honest with their audience. I say, screw access. If news outlets tried harder to find new people to interview instead of the same old cast of characters, they’d produce better journalism.
If a newsmaker has a history of lying, say so.
Some people would consider it biased to write: “Trump, who has lied about unveiling a health care plan for nearly a decade, said Tuesday: ‘I have concepts of a plan.’” In fact, such a sentence would provide honest and helpful context. There’s no question that Trump is the most pervasive liar in our nation’s political history. Why give him a clean slate every time, acting as if there’s a good chance he’s telling the truth this one time? Yet that’s exactly what mainstream media do. I would point out a newsmaker’s history of lying only if they’re notorious, repeat liars. But unfortunately, that describes many Republican politicians today.
Reject normalization of corruption and insanity.
One of the great dangers of our time is that people will start thinking that it’s normal for a president to knock down part of the White House and give pardons to infamous drug traffickers. Much of what’s happening now – especially Trump’s assault on the rule of law – goes against long-held American principles. The news media need to remind people of that and explain why it matters.
Don’t give liars the headlines they want.
I’m all for headlines that are clear and direct. But the media should not lead with disinformation. A recent NBC News headline read, “FDA claims Covid shots killed 10 children and vows new vaccine rules.” The summary underneath read, “Vaccine experts said the memo was irresponsible and that it omits key details about how officials arrived at the conclusion.” Swap the main points of the headline and the summary and you’d be doing it right.
State unvarnished truths.
Trump is building a dictatorship. Say it. There’s a mountain of evidence to support that obvious conclusion. He’s not “testing the boundaries of the presidency.” He’s building a dictatorship. Tell the truth. Warn the public.
Go to war against rival news outlets’ dishonesty.
Fox News has adopted a successful strategy of trashing the coverage on rival networks in order to make its audience think everyone in mainstream media is lying except for Fox. Legitimate media should employ this tactic for good – to alert the public when other outlets are lying to them.
You see, it’s not enough to do good work. The end goal of fostering an informed public requires the news industry to protect people from disinformation. I liken it to what many racial justice advocates say: It’s not enough to avoid being racist; to contribute to a just society, we must be anti-racist. I apply the same framing to the battle against disinformation: It’s not enough to report the truth. We must defeat the liars.
Why don’t major media adopt these tactics?
Because they’re more interested in profits than public service. They could embrace the reforms I suggest here, but they won’t because of what I call the Three C’s: cowardice, cluelessness, and complicity. Some fear Trump’s retribution, some cling to outmoded news practices, and some are actively collaborating with the Trump regime.
So I’m not looking for CNN to say, “Great ideas, Mark. We’ll do it!” But if some incredibly rich people want to give me money to launch such a news outlet, they know where to find me.
Until that happens, let’s shun the news outlets that fail to confront disinformation and support the ones that do. Let’s realize that right-wing lies are poisoning our society and act to protect our fellow Americans. Let’s be radically truthful.
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Agree with all of your points. The problem is the vast majority of the mainstream media is owned by right wing leaning people who have no issue with spinning outright lies that fit their agenda. In addition, there is no reaching the people who watch Fox News. They have bought into the cult and will believe anybody on Fox as opposed to anyone else. One would hope that broadcast stations like ABC, CBS and NBC would use your template but again, look at their ownership. The only way to overcome some of this is to convince the people who own these networks, newspapers and other media that they will lose money through declining viewership if they continued to allow lies to be presented without correction.
Thank you so very much for this article. We definitely agree . MS NOW is doing their job. The reporting has been outstanding. CBS the Golden globes was pretty awful. They were listing the winners like making book on a bet who would win. The news anchor, he was awful. He called an African American person who has written a book I have. My grand uncle came from, Germany 🇩🇪, in 1939, his family were escaping Hitler. This is the same year Poland, was attacked. They were part, Jewish. My cousin said their father always feared for his life. Again many thanks.