Liberty, Liberally July 2023

Liberty, Liberally

Golden Opportunity

Professionals Profess But That’s Not “The Press”

By Joshua Fryfogle July 16, 2015

The freedom of the printing press is the inheritance of every individual. “Journalistic integrity,” was a later invention that only came about after Hearst and Pulitzer dominated the newspaper industry. Before then, local communities had local papers that were written by local community members.

Pulitzer and Hearst also created “yellow journalism”, so their feigned concern for “journalistic integrity” was just that. People were uncomfortable with their amassed influence, as Hearst and Pulitzer bought up the local newspapers and made them into vehicles for their agenda. The two magnates invented the “standards” to create the illusion that this concentration of mass communication wasn’t a danger to the free flow of information that the First Amendment guaranteed.

These days Comcast, Disney, News Corporation, Time Warner, and Viacom (who collectively own almost all of the media in the world) agree with Pulitzer and Hearst that concentration of media ownership is definitely not a problem. I own a small media company in Alaska and I disagree with this entire premise... this facade of fidelity.

The freedom of the press belongs to everyone. Any expectation of “journalistic integrity,” is contrary to that freedom, because it implies that we should be able to simply trust the author/authority. It’s authoritarianism. The First Amendment guarantees our right to discern.

The Role of Professing Journalists

Those who profess to be “journalists” need to recalibrate. I believe there is a role for professional journalists who prolifically write and make public their writings in the future world of free communication. I think there will always be those who make more use of their freedom of expression than the rest of us. And it is admirable if those people try their best to be unbiased in their writing. In fact, I think ridding ourselves of bias is a good character trait for all people to develop.

Those who write for the purpose of informing their communities have never been in a better position to do so honestly than they are today. Not only has the internet introduced a new level of connectivity, but traditional media outlets (print, radio, and television) have fallen out of favor with media corporations. They see the internet as a more controllable, censorable medium, and they like that added power. As the corporations that previously dominated the media industry leave those time-honored mediums behind, local people can reclaim what was once theirs.

The First Amendment's freedom of the press clause applies to everyone, not just professional journalists. It protects individuals' rights to publish and disseminate information, ideas, and opinions without government intervention or censorship. The profession of journalism often comes up in discussions about this freedom, because journalists, by nature of their job, are frequent and significant users of this right. But it's important to understand that the protections of the First Amendment extend to all individuals, regardless of their profession.

In the United States, one key figure in the development of modern standards of journalistic integrity was Joseph Pulitzer, an influential newspaper publisher in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Pulitzer strongly advocated for professional standards in journalism. He believed that newspapers had a duty to act in the public interest, and he pushed for accuracy, fairness, and objectivity in reporting. He also helped establish the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and funded the creation of the Pulitzer Prizes to reward excellence in journalism.

Yellow Journalism, AKA, Fake News

Joseph Pulitzer, along with William Randolph Hearst, are associated with the rise of "yellow journalism," a style of newspaper reporting that emerged in the late 19th century which prioritized sensationalism, scandal-mongering, and often exaggeration over accurate, balanced news.

However, people grew wary and weary of this common practice, so Pulitzer later in life became a significant advocate for responsibility and professionalism in journalism. He helped to establish the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Pulitzer Prizes.

Before the rise of media magnates like Hearst and Pulitzer, local newspapers were often run by individuals or small groups who lived in the communities they served. These early newspapers were less professionalized than modern ones; many editors and writers did not have formal training in journalism because the need for such standards had not arisen. Since local newspapers were small, and controlled by community members at a local level, there was no danger that a certain perspective would be propagated over the whole of society.

AtlasJoe:Or,TheFearfulResponsibilitiesofaSelf-AppointedManageroftheUniverse”

An illustration parodying Joseph Pulitzer from Puck Magazine, created by Frederick Burr Opper, January 1898, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

“Beware of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are.” - Rudyard Kipling

Liberty, Liberally

July 2023

Magic Isn’t Real

Alaska

PROFESSIONALS PROFESS... CONTINUED

This problem only arose after Pulitzer and Hearst took near complete control of the nation’s news media. In the world before, while one small paper might have one perspective, another small paper might offer a completely different view. The average individual could learn from and discern their own opinions based on a plurality of perspectives. It was a decentralized, democratized network of public record making and community communication.

Now we’re in a time of transition.

Traditional mediums like radio and print are no longer jealously guarded by corporate interests, and the internet is yet to be completely controlled by government and algorithm. Those who want to express themselves can do so, and those who want to do so professionally can make their own way.

you simply because you’re affiliated with some brand name. You can still engage in professional journalism, but your trust will be earned over time, and tempered by the fact that you’re a local individual that local people know personally.

In other words, we’re coming full circle to the way things were before Hearst and Pulitzer took over the media industry. And that’s a good thing.

Manipulation using mass media is nothing new. It’s a constant theme in movies and pop culture, that those in power often use the power of mass communication to affect the public discourse.

Learning the classic liberal arts, especially grammar, rhetoric, and logic, is the beginning of understanding this phenomenon.

But why bother?

It’s a magic trick, how they manipulate us. And like any magic trick, once you know the method being used to create the illusion, the illusion is no more. Once you’ve been initiated into the knowledge of how the magic trick tricks us, the magic is gone. The same is true when we learn how the mass media is used to manipulate public opinion.

Framing. This is probably the most common way that misinformation and disinformation is disseminated to the masses. In the case of misinformation, framing is perpetuated by those who have been influenced by the media. With disinformation, false or skewed information is inserted into the discourse by those entrusted with keeping us informed. By leaving out key pieces of information, or exaggerating others, those who seek to confuse the masses are able to frame an issue so that it becomes difficult for anyone to properly communicate about an idea. Because the misunderstanding of these details has been propagated, those who seek clarity on the issue seem to the masses to be out of touch with the issue.

Their effort to correct these ideas is met with resistance, because the masses do not know that the issue has been framed in a way that is inaccurate.

Setting an agenda. Mass media can decide what is reported and what is not. By ignoring certain issues and amplifying others, they have the ability to determine what we talk about in general. When someone attempts to draw attention to an issue that hasn’t been widely reported, most people simply don’t know what they’re talking about.

Appeal to emotion. This is a big one, because logic and reason are in opposition to emotion. Human beings are emotional creatures, that respond to the chemical signals created by their own biology. Emotions are the result of chemical changes that occur within the human organism, and these emotional/chemical reactions can be provoked. This happens all the time in media, with entertainment media being an overt example, while informational media can covertly appeal to emotion. When we bypass our logical faculties and engage our emotional capacity, we are easily led.

These are just a few of the ways that mass media can be used to manipulate us, and it’s very simple to avoid them. By taking the time to contemplate and educate ourselves on these methods, we become more capable of identifying the illusion. Because it’s the same bag of tricks, and only the details change, those who have learned the methods behind the tricks are able to recognize the trick as such. Remember, magic isn’t real.

However, the people who created yellow journalism were also the creators of ‘journalistic standards’, which were a response to their creation of yellow journalism. Yellow journalism came about because of the monopolization of the media, giving undue influence to a few. Those few today who want to be trusted professional journalists should keep this in mind. Society will never again trust

My Company, Make A Scene Media, has grown over the last 16 years. We started with Make A Scene Magazine, introducing the idea of social media in print. Facebook was still new, and MySpace was on the way out, when that first edition went to print. A few years later we added another publication, The People’s Paper, to create a vehicle for all of the non-arts-related content we were receiving, and it quickly became the larger of the two publication. Both served the community, not by telling them what I think, but by letting them tell each other what they think. Then in 2019, we added a commercial radio station, 95.5 The Pass, KNLT, to our offerings. Instead of DJs we opened up the phone lines, letting local listeners take control of the airwaves. This is all in keeping with the mission to empower the self-expression of local people like you. This is not new, but a renewal of what once was.

Make A Scene!

Don’t Be Divided: A Juneteenth Review

I appreciated a recent Juneteenth event because it wasn’t without faith and hope. So many of the protests we’ve seen in the last many years have been co-opted by those who claim to have “critical consciousness,” who believe that those who disagree with them have a “false consciousness” that includes both a spiritual belief in God and a civic belief in the potential of our nation.

“False consciousness” is a term used in Marxist theory to describe a situation where an individual has a misunderstood perception of the realities of their own life. It reminds me of Rousseau’s concept of the “noble savage”, and is equally fraught with folly.

At this year’s event in Palmer, Alaska, they displayed the US flag with pride, and led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance. This gathering by the MatSu MLK, Jr. Foundation was also led in a Christian prayer. An accurate historical understanding about Juneteenth, and later civil rights as a movement spearheaded by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is built on the promises of liberty guaranteed in our nation’s founding, and also in the message of Christian philosophy that emanated from the pulpits of our unique society. Marxists, neo-Marxists, and post-modernists do not believe in nations or God.

I am very grateful that the Mat-Su MLK Jr. Foundation presented Juneteenth in

a historically accurate way, instead of the revisionist, co-opted, “critically conscious” way that has been promoted by corporate interests in the last few years. It took over two years for word to travel (literally) to every group of people in the US, after the Emancipation Proclamation. The US is built on the promise and potential of a “more perfect union”, and that takes time.

“A More Perfect Union" is a phrase that originates from the Preamble to the United States Constitution. The full line reads, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."

The phrase implies the continuous work and effort needed for self-governance, acknowledging that while the Union might not be perfect, the aim is to make it as close to perfect as possible, and the recognition that the task of refining and improving the nation is ongoing. There are those who seek to divide us, and seek to disrupt this process of perfecting our nation. They want revolution that dismantles the nation, and disconnects us from spirituality. These few political ideologues have had their perspectives disproportionately amplified, to drown out the reasonable voices of the majority, black and white alike, who want to heal these national and spiritual wounds.