Publish and be damned...

I have had cause to be exposed to journalists recently. A deal that I have been working on has gotten some column inches. I have been required to brief the slavering hordes of Fleet Street to further the aims of my client.

It frightens me when they write on a topic that I understand. Journalists don't even remotely understand the issues. They don't portray both sides of the story. They manuipulate the facts to sensationalise the piece. They make no pretence at even bothering to get to the truth behind the headlines (or, given that "truth" is often a relative viewpoint, even look at the story from more than one angle). They are consumed by jealousy of anyone richer, more famous or more successful than themselves (basically anyone...). They filter the facts through a whole set of personal and political biases. Well, that explains the Guardian, then...

I have, naturally, used the slipshod, dissolute nature of financial journalists to my advantage...

Now, I do not find any of this, in itself, worrying at all - I have achieved what I wanted and distorted the truth to help ensure that my client can succeed. No-one (apart from the few financiers on the other side - who can afford it) will be harmed.

But think of the wider implications. I read the papers avidly. I read them for the financial news, obviously, but most of that I discount because I know what is really going on... But it is the current affairs - this is where I get my world view... What if, as Thomas Jefferson said,

"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."?

Then again, he had little respect for my profession:
"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

It is of deep concern to me that the rest of the newspaper could be as poorly researched as what they write on financial markets:

"How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read."
Karl Kraus

How much of what we read is crap? How much is distilled down to a soundbite or headline that is designed to catch our attention but leaves truth and honesty far behind?

So I'll leave any budding journalists out there with this thought:

"The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge."
Elbert Hubbard.

Enjoy...