Lippmann, Journalism and Democracy

In 1920, American writer, journalist, political commentator and President Woodrow Wilson’s adviser Walter Lippmann wrote a book titled Liberty and the News. In that work, Lippman wrote the following passage:
"The news of the day as it reaches the newspaper office is an incredible medley of fact, propaganda, rumor, suspicion, clues, hopes, and fears, and the task of selecting and ordering that news is one of the truly sacred and priestly offices in a democracy."

Nothing has changed! We see (or want to see) the same formula today. Let’s talk about the most recent hot topic – the Olympics. Week by week the readers and viewers got a mish mash of Olympic facts (how many gold, silvers and bronzes), propaganda (China promotes herself, US tries to make the best of second place by using unconventional medal counting which places it first), rumors (how old are these Chinese gymnastic girls really?), suspicion (are the judges always fair, is there politics involved, why did Nastia get that unfair score, did anyone get away with doping?), clues (looks like China, America and the Big Bear want to display their power through their athletes, which country has/can/will spend the most on training their athletes), hopes (forget about War in the World! If ancient and current enemies can compete side by side in this happy event, why fight!), and fears (would the pollution choke the athletes, would there be a terrorist attack, and, hey, British! Look’s like you’ve got some huge homework to match the Chinese effort: due in summer, 2012, London already seems to be slipping - millions of British pounds spent, but the main stadium is nothing special. Yes, even architecture competes in the Olympics). Let’s be honest, Beijing took our breath away (and not in the way some had feared – no smog in Beijing for the entire Games), and the era of Green Olympics has just started. But when the media has already announced this Olympics – “the best”, can the next ones be better?
Though journalists are a link between policymakers and the public, I have never believed that journalists are priests in our society, but I do agree with Lippmann’s view that the purpose of journalism is “intelligence work”. The problem is that people create their own pictures in their minds, based on the mass of incoming media ‘reports’, but often do not have the tools to discriminate between fact and fiction, good journalism and bad journalism, etc. Don’t blame yourself. Nothing is black or white. On the other hand, choice of media is important. Take a couple of minutes and think about: which are your favorite newspapers, magazines, TV channels, and news websites? Are they all playing the same note? If yes, change half of them and you will be surprised how different the news looks from “note A” media and “note C” media. Lippmann said that people are lacking judgment and critical thinking. It is impossible to participate in democracy without a range of rich and different knowledge sources combined with the exercise of strong (extra strong) judgment.