Future not bright for nation's press

A recent Opinion page column by Caroline Little stating the future is bright for the press must reside in the academic world rather than our real world.

One half century ago, almost every article published addressed who, what, when, where and why with accuracy. If there were errors, typically the following day and on the front page would be a correction. Every event or subject of interest to the reader was fairly and accurately addressed. The reader could rely on everything written because the article was complete with all the information for the reader.

Now the majority of the public do not accept as complete and accurate what is published. Instead the article tends to focus more on the belief or opinion of the author or publisher than on actual facts and events. Before, the press was truly the Fourth Estate and our watch dog over government.

Every politician seeking public office was thoroughly vetted for the voter to decide. Our current president was never vetted nor did the public know anything beyond two autobiographies he wrote when they voted. The press ignores events or facts which would present our current administration in an adverse light.

The New York Times was considered the Bible on what daily topics should be addressed because of the quality and accuracy of their reporting. Under the current management, the number of articles published by reporters with grave errors and/or omissions has destroyed its reputation.

Instead of the readers readily accepting as factual the contents of articles published in the newspaper, they utilize the Internet and thousands of databases for the truth. We access the same databases that are available to those writing articles, yet either are too lazy or biased to include all relevant material. These are just some of the reasons why major cities and town are down to one newspaper and a few cities don’t even having a locally published newspaper.

Unless the media begins reporting the truth regardless of adverse light placed on their favorite administration or politician, it will become totally irrelevant in the world of information.

William Hadley
Yuma