"Is the press a noble profession?

"Is the press a noble profession?

The French Revolution recognized three Estates among men, The Church, The Nobility and the Common Man. The Press was not included until some British MP in a speech pointed to the press gallery in the House of Commons and declared them the "Fourth" Estate.”  These four  estates were very much in the minds of our founding fathers.  It is the Fourth Estate, "The Press" that I wish for you to consider for a moment.

I took journalism in seminary from an old Ft-Worth Star Telegram guy who taught us that the emphasis in that class was going to be on concepts like "a good news story is the unbiased telling of both sides of a story."  We learned the "who, what, when and how" rubric of reporting and story writing. We also learned that a one sided piece is an editorial or opinion and belongs on the opinion or editorial page in not the news columns.   Liberal or conservative, Christian or non-Christian true journalists report facts without personal bias.

Finding a news source that reports an unbiased, two sided story on any national event has become almost impossible. I recently urged people to do their own research the other day failing to recognize that has become virtually impossible. Research is not just searching for the stuff which you agree it includes real wrestling with the stuff that conflicts with what you want to believe.  You can do the research but finding a balanced report will require you to  burn a lot of midnight oil.

I have watched one good news source after another become nothing more that a supermarket tabloid or one sided and single minded propaganda machine. 

The Fourth Estate as we are want to call the Media has never been a purveyor of truth. They have always played fast and loose with the facts and promoted a point of view. Hence, we have the terms like "Yellow Journalism" to describe the once powerful Scripps-Howard newspapers.  They were once looked down upon by mainstream news outlets but now they are indistinguishable. However, for the most part “hard news” went in the columns and “opinions” went on the editorial page. Now, opinion is subtlety and skillfully woven within the hard news.

Owners and editors learned that the more sensationally you tell the story the more papers you sell.  Editors and reporters soon learned that weaving an opinion into a news article could sway opinion in the direction they wanted.  Codes of ethics were just something to hang on a wall.  Regardless of the risk such action might put people or even the nation it was “Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.” They have become nothing more than large "Five Cent Westerns" chasing the almighty dollar or their own political bias.

My personal moral and ethical foundation requires that I understand a half-truth as the whole lie that it is. Hence, any news media that reports only half the story is lying and attempting to promote a point of view. How they tell that "partial story" serves to lead you to arrive at a conclusion of the journalists choosing.

Personally, I would prefer a Jack Webb approach to reporting, "Just the facts ma’am, just the facts."  I'll weigh them and I'll form my own conclusion. Sadly, so many seem to believe that if its in print or on TV it must be true.  

So I'll ask you, "Is the press a noble profession and why or why not?

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Just an aside: I Googled "The Press" and up popped the following. I thought it was descriptive enough.