Stop Blaming Journalism
Journalism has been unjustly demonized for years. Yes, the profession is not perfect. As in other professions, slip-ups sometimes occur. But let's remember that journalism is a profession dedicated to investigating corruption, abuse, and injustice.
And yet journalists are negatively portrayed as aggressive and antagonistic. But without journalists, who would be reporting the truth? We need to remind ourselves that thousands of journalists risk everything to report on stories that deserve to be known. Some journalists get killed while doing their jobs.
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Journalist Gabriel García Márquez, who won the Novel Prize for literature, wrote an article, "El Mejor Oficio del Mundo" (The Best Job in the World), in which he criticized journalists who don't feel passionate about the job. For Márquez, they are the ones bound to make mistakes or publish something that wasn't well investigated. He believed that journalists should surround themselves with the news every day, question every piece of information, and show curiosity towards the world around them. The duty of a journalist, he argued, is to inform the people about issues and events that have an impact on society.
In the spirit of Márquez's values, let's remember some examples of fearless journalists who investigated abuse and corruption and courageously informed their readers despite the consequences.
Elizabeth Jane Cochran
Cochran, born in 1864, is regarded as the pioneer of investigative journalism. Known in print as Nelly Bly, her most remarkable work was published in 1887 after she went undercover in a New York psychiatric asylum for women. Faking a mental illness to be admitted into the clinic, following her release ten days later she wrote about the asylum's inhumane conditions — abuse of patients by nurses, poor quality of food and water, and other appalling conditions. After her articles were published, authorities increased the asylum's budget to improve patient conditions.
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Watergate
The Watergate Scandal in 1972 is remembered as a great triumph of investigative journalism. Two Washington Post journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, investigated White House machinations after burglars were caught in the Watergate Hotel trying to steal secret documents and wiretap phones. The burglars, it turned out, were connected to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Woodward and Bernstein reported that the break-in was part the vast espionage and sabotage plans to get Nixon re-elected. As they pursued their investigation, their stories uncovered one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. In the end, Nixon was forced to resign from office in 1974.
All the President's Men. Image Credit: Giphy.com
Spotlight
Other investigative journalistic achievements that should not be forgotten include the work of the Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team investigating cases of priests sexually abusing children. The first article, published in 2002, was "Church Allowed Abuse by Priests for Years", followed by many articles on the Church's attempt to cover up the abuse and the number of priests involved. The first response of the Church was a "zero tolerance" towards abuse cases. In 2015, the Boston Globe's story made it to the big screen with the film, Spotlight, in honor of the survivors and the work of the journalists. The film won Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
Scene from Spotlight Image Credit: Giphy
Honorable Mentions
Let's remember, too, the journalists behind the Panama Papers uncovering lists of rich people with money hidden in offshore tax havens. Also, Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who helped Edward Snowden reveal information about the surveillance program of the U.S. government. And Guillermo Cano Isaza, director of Colombian news paper El Espectador, which continuously reported the on actions of drug dealer Pablo Escobar. He was later murdered by a hitman in Escobar's cartel.
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On a final note, let's remember the words of Henry Anatole Grunwald, who once said of journalism that it "can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air."
