FROM WATCHDOG TO GUIDEDOG TO LOBBYING

The core function of journalism is to provide citizens with information about public affairs so they can be responsible participants in the democratic process. However, economic and technological factors are increasingly posing a challenge to this core function. Ownership of media organizations is more heavily centralized that ever before in the history of media communication.

What happens to the watchdog function of journalism whereby journalists train a skeptical and questioning eye on the institutions of powers and investigate potential wrongdoings in the interest of the public? Today the leading media corporations are among the institutions of power. Given the overwhelming amount of information that circulates on a daily basis, journalists not only lack time and sometimes knowledge of what is going on in the world but also the resources to gather all that information, verify it and distribute it to the public. Thus the role of a journalist becomes that of a guidedog, someone who guides users through overwhelming amount of information. This change from a watchdog function to the guidedog function not only impacts what type of news is reported but also results in a shift from reportage to commentary opinion.

The blurring of the line between journalists and commentators as well as the lax disclosure of conflicts of interest poses a significant problem to the public. What is the role of the media, cable networks and journalists in all of that? Cable networks are corporations engaged in lobbying themselves. They don’t only look away from ethical standards of professional journalism when it comes to lobbying: they lobby themselves. Media organizations supposedly objective on all issues are either employing lobbyists for their own interests or sharing lobbyists with companies that are very partial on issues. Put another way, the media is not so much ‘reporting’ on the news as much as it is ‘influencing’ how the public perceives issues.

From this perspective there is a fundamental conflict of interest affecting journalism. On the one hand journalists have an obligation to inform people. On the other hand, the corporations that own news are run by people who have a strict fiduciary obligation to shareholders. These two obligations are utterly opposed for many reasons.

A journalist is primarily responsible to the readers, listeners and viewers, who have the right to know what is happening in society. Decisions concerning the content of media must be made in accordance with journalistic principles. The power to make such decisions must not under any circumstances be surrendered to any party outside the editorial office. The journalist has the right and obligation to resist pressure or persuasion that attempts to steer, prevent or limit communications.