What's the Big Deal?
(This was written by Emily. The following are her personal views on this topic!)
It’s hard to overstate my respect and gratitude for the Fourth Estate. To me, a free press is everything. I deeply believe the news media significantly contributes to the health of our democracy and, without high-level journalism, democracy’s very survival would be at risk.
Take investigative journalism, which has been on fire lately. Holding individuals and corporations accountable is invaluable to our society, and journalists have been knocking it out of the park.
There was Vice News’ reporting on White supremacist groups during and after the Charlottesville domestic terrorist attack and Buzz Feed’s heartbreaking coverage of China’s internment of the Uyghurs. The Washington Post did a deep dive into the Pandora Papers, which uncovered a massive offshore financial system used to hide money and shield corrupt and criminal behavior, and incredible reporting by The New York Times that revealed how the United States tried to hide an airstrike in Syria that killed dozens of civilians.
ProPublica — an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest — takes investigative journalism to the next level. There was its investigation of child separation at the border, which included audio tapes of hysterical children detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, along with their explosive “Secret IRS Files” investigation (we’ll talk more about this later). Most recently, ProPublica published an exposé on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ close (and, in my opinion, highly inappropriate) relationship with a GOP megadonor, which we’ll also talk about later.
That said, there is something that has really been bothering me over the past few years. I hate to say it, but there are other elements of the media — including print media (traditional journalism and opinion journalism) and broadcast media (talk radio, network television and cable news) — that have gotten a little sideways.