What Is the Story?

On any given day, journalists file thousands of stories. Quite a few are on the same subject, some explore new ground, and a surprising number of “stories” are effectively made up or push fallacious conclusions or conjectures. What is fascinating, or frightening, is that there are dedicated followers for each story genre. It does not matter if you are on the right or left; we perceive “facts” that most closely match our biases and emotional makeup. Today, let’s talk about why we read news differently.

The superficiality of much of the reporting in our journalistic organs has led to an uninformed population that has lost the ability to differentiate between truth and falsehoods and what is substantive vs. emotional tripe. We are a less free and pluralistic nation when we don’t recognize our journalistic failings.

 

Is Democracy, Undermined by the Age of Tweets & Posts?

In a world of tweets and posts, blogs, and constant sharing of whatever passes for inciteful news and analysis, we devalue democracy in the process. Journalists are not immune to the siren song of self-congratulatory and self-reinforcing adulation cheering them on. We love our participation trophies because they make us feel good and are a substitute for adhering to essential truths, history, and rational thinking essential to understanding our world.

Shared democracy requires us to understand what is essential to know and why. Failing that basic charge, we are left with an empty stomach and a headache. We are a representative government, but we often elect the wrong people without a knowledgeable electorate. Job one for journalism should be to help people understand important issues in an unbiased manner. Today’s weak-kneed journalism fails us miserably on that basis.

There is an indisputable gender gap on issues in the news. The number one issue for women is abortion. In what world should the issue of abortion be more important than being able to feed your family or live in freedom? But that’s precisely the case with the abortion issue. Good and truthful journalism should neither smother our emotions nor inflame them. Yet, this is what they do. If Kamala Harris wins the election, it will be due to this single issue.

Journalism can highlight and educate us on the importance of crucial issues like:

1. What are America’s essential interests?
2. How well does the government address those interests?
3. Why are we so disconnected from the truth?
4. What, who, and why are some fanning the divisions that inflame us?
5. Why is America’s history being revised?
6. What happened to the American workforce post-COVID?
7. America’s steady march back into isolationism.

These are just some of the stories that beg to be told. We have always had journalists who advocated issues. But, for most of our existence, journalists were also frequently patriots. They shared the same beliefs in the superiority of the American system of government, democracy, and the individual as the rest of us. They possessed a degree of modesty and compassion as they reported or sometimes did not report stories. Today, stories that destroy individuals are common, even when the story only reveals we have human foibles. The old “If it bleeds, it leads” has been expanded to include stories of prurient interest that only makes us distrust each other more.

 

The Consequences of Prioritizing Clicks Over Critical News:-

The rise of electronic journalism has enhanced the disconnect between informing us of essential and relevant news and information, becoming nothing but a means to keep our eyeballs glued to a screen to titillate and destroy our society. We revere pop culture and “influencers” who live fake lives and offer us nothing to nourish the soul. The rise of TikTok, Facebook, and the demise of local journalism can all be laid at the feet of sugar-high journalism so predominant today.

Nowhere is the change in journalist conventions so apparent as the line between liberal and conservative outlets. While each has its failings, the general pandering of emotion over logic is most evident in majority progressive outlets that pander to the amygdala portion of the brain, which is the seat of our emotional self. Conservative outlets come in for their share of emotional manipulation but are on the right side of logical behavior more often. Thinking is more challenging than feeling. Too many of us seem to be on an odyssey of high emotion. You can’t eat emotion, but you can think and learn about issues that can and will see you live a better life.

It is not reported nearly enough how much our world has changed this century and whether this is good. When it is, we gloss over reasons that we need to understand. Progressivism has masked the damaging structural changes roiling our economy and hollowing out our middle class while at the same time creating anti-Americans of our young who have no idea how they will prosper in today’s economy.

A broadly revealing story comes from a trade publication, Aviation Week. Their July 15-28 issue had an article entitled “Course Correction” that focused on most of the aircraft manufacturer’s inability to recover from the depths of COVID:

“…a devastating loss of experience when thousands of technicians and engineers retired or changed industries during the Pandemic.”

Millions of experienced employees took advantage of damaging government policies to check out of the economy, not just in aerospace but in medicine, manufacturing, and myriad high-skilled industries. Hiring millions of unskilled and frequently unmotivated workers has severely impacted our supply chains, quality, and competitiveness in the world markets, which did not make the bad economic decisions we did. One of this country’s largest and most important manufacturing projects is the F-35 fighter program. Due to various supply chain issues, not one has been delivered this year to our Air Force.

There are important stories that the public never hears about or only hears specific viewpoints that bolster a particular journalist or network’s bias. Unraveling this problem is a perfect place to start regaining our democracy. Progressives need you to remain oblivious and detached. Only in that state can they manipulate you.

God Bless America.

Allan J. Feifer—Patriot

Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com