Journalistic Advocacy in Defending & Preserving Democracy
“In addition to championing freedom of the press (Franklin was the first to publish Cato’s “Essay on Free Speech” in 1722 after his brother was imprisoned for criticizing the Massachusetts government), Franklin vigorously supported the rights of religious freedom, speech, and assembly that were ultimately incorporated into the First Amendment.
Franklin viewed the flow of ideas through such freedoms as essential to democracy, and he practiced these rights through numerous literary endeavors and ownership of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin viewed free expression as the principal antagonist of tyrannical regimes….”
——Wikipedia
New York Times articles have a tenth-grade reading level and romance novels have about a fifth-grade reading level. A sixth-grade student could understand content with a Flesch Reading Ease of 60 to 70…
“Studies have shown that despite efforts to remain completely impartial, journalism is unable to escape some degree of implicit bias, whether political, personal, or metaphysical, whether intentional or subconscious.
This does not necessarily indicate an outright rejection of the existence of an objective reality, but rather recognition of the inability to report on it in a value-free fashion and the controversial nature of objectivity in journalism. Many journalists and scholars accept the philosophical idea of pure “objectivity” as being impossible to achieve, but still strive to minimize bias in their work.
It is also argued that as objectivity is an impossible standard to satisfy, all types of journalism have some degree of advocacy, whether intentional or not.”
——Wikipedia
As Journalists, neither Thomas Paine nor Benjamin Franklin were ‘objective’.
What follows is an outline or catalog of some of the issues, concepts and concerns journalism, as an institution, must address as the only marketplace enterprise that is addressed and protected by the Constitution of the United States:
Objectivity v Getting It Right
Getting It First v Getting It Right
Slant and Spin
Research and Investigation
Inference and Implication
News Reports v Editorial Opinion
Here are some of the constitutionally protected rhetorical tools and weaponry that may be employed in journalism and used by journalists with the expectation that readers of their reports and consumers of their opinions must accurately and critically comprehend:
Semantics:
the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.
Syntax:
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
“the syntax of English”
a set of rules for or an analysis of the syntax of a language.
Grammar:
the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics.
euphemism:
a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
platitude:
a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.
Extrapolation:
the action of estimating or concluding something by assuming that existing trends will continue or a current method will remain applicable.
“sizes were estimated by extrapolation”
Juxtaposition:
the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
“the juxtaposition of these two images”
False equivalence:
is a logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency. Colloquially, a false equivalence is often called “comparing apples and oranges.
Dichotomy:
a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.
Re critical reading and comprehension very little, if any, of this is covered or addressed as separate, independent, or stand alone elements or components of public school curriculum at any grade level.
It should be clear that the skills and competencies required for the effective implementation of the tools and weapons of Journalistic advocacy are the skills and competencies required for critical reading and ultimately critical thinking.
It is apparent that too many Americans are clueless re the role that journalism and journalists must play in the defense and preservation, perpetuation, and maintenance of our democracy and system of self governance…
Far too many people in this country have been wheedled, cajoled, demagogued and goaded into a fundamental distrust and disbelief of the enterprise of journalism and journalists they refer to as “lamestream media”.
It seems to me that in order to gird the voting public against disinformation, misinformation, political hypocrisy, hyperbole, demagoguery, fraud, deceit, and outright lies, we must rethink and reconstruct the primary assumptions, paradigms, purposes, goals and agendas of what we call free public education.
As the only marketplace enterprise that is addressed and protected by the Constitution of the United States, there’s a reason why Franklin’s amendment is the First Amendment.
The best defense of our democratic republic is a populace who can read and comprehend well enough to know what journalism is, and when the democracy is being threatened or has come under attack.
Ben Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
To which Franklin supposedly responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
07/13/2022 @ 10:02 am
This is a very well thought article. Thanks.
07/13/2022 @ 7:22 pm
Art,
Thanks for the compliment and comment.
07/13/2022 @ 11:01 pm
Getting rid of bias is a perpetual struggle. You can’t completely but you can usually get closer than you are. But journalistic responsibility involves trying.
Whenever I hear criticism of mainstream media, the first thing I ask is How are your sources being more conscientious aside from the fact that they agree with you? Are they trying to get you outraged? Because if they are, they’re not functioning as a news organization, they’re functioning as a sales organization.
07/14/2022 @ 5:52 am
Kosh,
You’re correct to a certain extent.
Keep in mind that Paine, Franklin and others ‘sold’ the Revolution.
The key to addressing your issue is raising the level of sophistication and discernment of readers and viewers.
First, by improving their capacity to distinguish and separate their sources of ‘information and news’ from propaganda machines.
Another, possibly more salient problem, is that, in too many isolated locations and population pockets, Fox is the only outlet and ‘news’ and information resource accessible and available to the public, which in many respects is a ‘captive audience’.
The New York Times and NBC never gets into their communities and homes, much less their minds.
07/14/2022 @ 10:43 pm
Paine and Franklin weren’t reporters, they were commentators. Different responsibility
07/15/2022 @ 12:31 am
Re different responsibility:
You’re trying to move the goalposts.
Advocacy and bias are not the same thing. Your conflation of the two concepts has created a false equivalency…
Both Franklin and Paine would, themselves, tell you that they were journalists who advocated revolution.
They were indeed commentators re the nature and condition of the relationship between the colonies and the crown.
Their reports and commentary advocated the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new and independent government to be a new order in the new world.
Biographers and historians agree that Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was the best journalist in colonial America and his Pennsylvania Gazette the best newspaper. Founded in 1728, the Gazette was the second newspaper to be produced in Philadelphia.
https://americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-colonial-america/item/110#:~:text=Biographers%20and%20historians%20agree%20that,to%20be%20produced%20in%20Philadelphia.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an English-born journalist and Revolutionary propagandist. His writings convinced many American colonists of the need for independence.
Thomas Paine came to America in 1774, an unknown and insignificant Englishman. Yet 2 years later he stood at the center of the stage of history, a world figure, an intimate of great men, and a pamphleteer extraordinary.
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-paine
Thomas Paine was one of the first journalists to use media as a weapon against the entrenched power structure.
https://www.wired.com/1995/05/paine/
In 1774, Paine met Benjamin Franklin, who is believed to have persuaded Paine to immigrate to America, providing Paine with a letter of introduction.
https://www.ushistory.org/paine/
Journalism is an umbrella term that includes fact based reporting and issue oriented commentary.
07/15/2022 @ 8:00 am
You’re right. Franklin was a reporter.
And earlier American journalism, including of course the Yellow Press, was heavily biased intentionally, like Fox is now.
I don’t know when getting rid of bias became important in reporting. I do know that I have to rethink putting it back, and I also realize that I need to delve deeper into the relationship between bias and objectivity. One of the characteristics of this particular era is that objectivity and impartiality are so far apart, meaning that objectivity now leads inevitably to bias and advocacy. It’s interesting watching the mainstream press dealing with this. The Washington Post and The NY Times chose different paths, with the Post saying “screw it, we’re going for objectivity and if that involves bias, that’s journalistic responsibility” and the Times trying this policy they called “sophisticated objectivity” which is just a euphemism for trying to stick to impartiality.
I think my problem is that I’m confusing objectivity and bias.
07/15/2022 @ 8:40 am
Kosh,
Re your “problem”: Please pay close attention to the following paragraphs I excerpted from the post and repeat here:
“Studies have shown that despite efforts to remain completely impartial, journalism is unable to escape some degree of implicit bias, whether political, personal, or metaphysical, whether intentional or subconscious.
This does not necessarily indicate an outright rejection of the existence of an objective reality, but rather recognition of the inability to report on it in a value-free fashion and the controversial nature of objectivity in journalism. Many journalists and scholars accept the philosophical idea of pure “objectivity” as being impossible to achieve, but still strive to minimize bias in their work.
It is also argued that as objectivity is an impossible standard to satisfy, all types of journalism have some degree of advocacy, whether intentional or not.”
——Wikipedia
07/17/2022 @ 7:15 am
One of my majors was sociology. We got taught about how hard you have to work to keep bias out of survey research because even the identity of the interviewer affects answers.
07/18/2022 @ 10:22 pm
Kosh,
“We got taught about how hard you have to work to keep bias out of survey research because even the identity of the interviewer affects answers.”
‘Bias’ in the development of a sociological research survey done for the purpose of statistical analysis is not the same thing as ‘bias’ in the reporting of news or ‘bias’ in the analysis of news reports.
Again a false equivalency that can lead to faulty assertions or faulty assumptions…