Some thoughts on ‘Losing the News’ by Alex S. Jones

In ‘Losing the News’ by Pulitzer-Prize winning Journalist Alex S. Jones, he warns of the dangers that news organizations face in regards to accountability and public trust, and he worries that the core values of journalism are under serious threat. I would have to agree with him on that point. Jones believes that traditional news organizations must be committed to five key journalistic standards: accuracy, balance, accountability, independence, and checks on profit. The mainstream media in America doesn’t live up to any of these standards anymore. In America, a “vigorous, adversarial” press doesn’t really exist. Mainstream news organizations in America have been turned into propaganda outlets for their corporate masters. A quote from former CIA director William Colby is instructive: “The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.”

In his investigative report for Rolling Stone magazine, “The CIA and The Media,” author Carl Bernstein quotes William Bader, a former CIA official, in a briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee: “There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don’t need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are Agency people (CIA) at the management level.”

Later in the article, Bernstein writes, “The Agency’s relationship with the New York Times was by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. (It is) general Times policy … to provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible.”

So why should we trust the New York Times?

According to Jones, “The Iron Core” of journalism is a “sphere of pitted iron, grey and imperfect like a large cannonball.” This metaphorical iron core is the foundation of all professional journalism done by news organizations. This in turn sustains our democracy and fuels all media formats.

Without this iron core of journalistic standards, Jones fears that the public good can’t be served. We must question everything – even if the truth challenges our own dogmas and biases.