The shooting subsequent not-guilty verdict are actual historical events. Is the anecdote relevant to the present? What is the role of journalism in a healthy society? Who is responsible for its integrity?

The shooting of Uri Carruth by Charles Landis, and subsequent not-guilty verdict, are actual historical events. Is the anecdote relevant to the present? What is the role of journalism in a healthy society? Who is responsible for its integrity?

It is chilling how relevant this event was, is, to our current situation-- and more recent history. A powerful dictator and would-be father figure literally gets away with murder. Whether one, or 11, or 11 million victims..
chilling.

Journalism in a healthy society plays the role of reporting accurately on events, including providing the facts alongside of any false statements made publicly by public figures (known as correcting the record). A secondary role is to provide a forum for respectful dialogue, not privileging one perspective over another.

Those who own the media, and those who manage it (editors, primarily) are responsible for ts integrity of process (such as assigning what is to be covered, what gets attention, standards of news gathering, and maintaining a "firewall" between advertising and the news) and integrity of content (what is published, whose voices are heard, to achieve balance and the broadest range of perspectives).Individual journalists have their role to play in striving to be open, objective, regardless of their private views. All of this applies regardless of whether the medium in question is broadcast, print, or social media.

We are seeing in our era, due to regulatory capture of the FCC, and the resulting massive growth of media corporations, that corporate oversight is weak, in the interest of maximizing profits -- this is a problem with broadcast media and social media, not with print media. It's why TV networks give more space to advertising than to news, spend more money on anchors than on investigative journalists, reduce coverage to a handful of topics that are guaranteed to attract attention (scandals, insults, not background on complex issues) and reduce the news to soundbytes -- leading to obsession with the practice of "false equivalence" in the name of balance: he said, she said, one climate scientist, one denier, regardless of their qualifications or accuracy-- leaving falsehoods to stand unchallenged in the name of fairness. On social media, corporate irresponsibility has led to the spread of lies, hate speech, fake news, by extremists and by third parties (Russia) hiding behind false identities, deliberately to disrupt respectful discourse. Presumably because Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media outlets don't want to lose money from potential advertisers and consumers, or waste money establishing and maintaining standards of civility. (Nor have they done so with standards of security.)

The proliferation of blogs and cable channels hasn't helped, nor the third-party political funding of "media" outlets such as online news services that are actually highly partisan manufacturers of propaganda.

Consumers also have a responsibility, to my mind -- to speak up, complain to the corporate leaders,editors, journalists, complain to the social media and vote with your feet, so to speak: unplug, unsubscribe, cancel the account, seek out the most reputable stations, and privilege print media, established newspapers whether your read them on paper or online, rather than getting it all from TV. Citizens have a responsibility to model respectful discourse, and seek out reputable news sources, ideally several of them.

I write this as a former journalist, and teacher of journalism.

Journalism should enlighten and expose the truth. Unfortunately people in power often hide the truth to make themselves better or correct. They use money and power to escape consequences. The press can and should expose the truth.

He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and his followers would still support him. The news media is the “enemy of the people.”
The relevance to today is terrifying. The blindly loyal follow the autocrat, who denies and denigrates truth, who publishes his own “truth,” whether with a fawning news outlet or Twitter. The attack on Truth, Science, and Journalism is one of the most dangerous threats our country has faced in a generation. I agree with the statement above, that the media needs to challenge falsehoods. Giving the standing to an extremist view that is given to a established authority is a dangerous practice.

It was eerily familiar - exactly what is happening today. Fake news - issues with the way a leader is being portrayed in the media. Gun violence and then claiming insanity - not accepting responsibility for your own behavior.

Journalists are extremely important, especially now with all the problems Americans are facing.