Veteran broadcast and print newsman Tim Knight writes a regular media column for HuffPost.
Traditional professional journalism is taking a beating these days.
When challenged, both left and right sneer at is as "mainstream journalism," implying that its somehow tainted because it's general interest, rather than some rabidly one-sided screed which supports their every prejudice and excludes all else.
So allow me to answer back.
Ethical professional journalism is the essential, irreplaceable cornerstone and guardian of a free society.
It is a public trust.
It is the watchdog of the public interest.
It is a jewel in the crown of democracy.
Without ethical, free, professional journalism, no other freedoms can be guaranteed or protected.
The hallmarks of ethical professional journalism are accuracy, fairness, responsibility and accountability. Which separates us for the fervid "citizen journalists," tweets, Facebook posts, and blogs of this anarchistic new Internet world where such qualities are not necessarily high on the list of priorities.
Having said that, we professional journalists have to do a lot better in the area that matters most of all -- being, and being seen to be, in public service -- than we've done in recent years.
So let's start by agreeing that it's at the peril of our immortal souls that we do anything but serve the people as ethically, honourably, honestly and fairly as is humanly possible.
To that end:
Ethical professional journalists put the peoples' interests before either our own or those of the powerful.
Our first loyalty is not to our employer. Nor to our union. Or cause. Or nation.
Our first loyalty is and must be to the people -- and to the people's democratic right to know.
Journalistic freedom is not important in that it keeps journalists free. Instead, it's vital in that it keeps the people free. Because journalists represent -- and must ultimately answer to -- the people. And only the people.
Within the limits of the law, journalism is either free or not free. It can't be three-quarters free. Or two-thirds free. But there are legions of vested interests out there ready, willing and eager to lessen journalistic freedom. Just a little bit, of course. And only for the greater good of all, of course.
The test of free journalism is not whether journalists can write and broadcast things people -- especially the powerful -- agree with.
The test of free journalism is whether journalists are free to write and broadcast things people -- especially the powerful -- disagree with.
The people have to know where they've been before they can understand where they are. That's what history's for.
And they have to know where they are before they can see where they might be going. That's what journalism's for.
The free, honest, open, fair dissemination of information through ethical professional journalism is the only trustworthy guide society has ever developed to daily explain -- as a first, rough draft of history -- the world we live in.
Free, honest, open, fair dissemination of information is both the business of professional journalism and the true currency of democracy.
It's called "The Free Marketplace of Ideas."
(More on "The Free Marketplace of Ideas" in my next column.)
Follow Tim Knight on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TimKnight6
Merriam-Webster defines it as: "1. the quality or state of being dull or insipid; 2. a banal, trite, or stale remark" and offers as an example, "His speech was filled with familiar platitudes about the value of hard work and dedication" ... and ethical professional journalism.
Er drayt sich arum vie a fortz in russell.
Such a call for support for free, ethical, so-called "mainstream" journalism in a world filled with rabid cynical and self-serving cyberchatter (often under the guise of journalism) isn't new of course.
Nor do I claim it to be so.
It would indeed be platitudinous if the qualities I list were universal or even general.
It would be bromidic if the public assumed such self-evident journalistic qualities to be the norm.
Unfortunately, neither is the case.
At this dangerous time when free, traditional journalism is threatened as, perhaps, never before in Canada, we cannot be reminded too often of the essential part public service journalism plays in our democracy.
Consider the alternative.
Amen to that.
Let's further agree that if our politicians behaved this way; the World would be a much better place. Is that too much to ask?
Agreed. Unfortunately, many politicians won't temper their behaviour without a vigilant news media to hold them accountable.
It is the watchdog of the public interest.
It is a jewel in the crown of democracy.
It is the CBC.