Seldes, Stone, & Their Nightmare

Reading about Jeff Cohen’s articles “George Seldes Leaves a Legacy of Courage” and “Izzy Stone, Patron Saint of Bloggers” caused me to reflect on what the true issue might be in journalism today. At many times both Seldes and Stone experienced substantial government opposition to their journalistic pursuits. During the mid-to-late 20^th century the minority concern was that too many in the media industry did not function with the “fourth estate” or watchdog goals of media as their goals. The concern went further than not digging deep enough into some important stories. Whether a reporter was self-censored or influenced by corporate bureaucratic, many willfully bowed to pressure to gloss over government activities that were almost certainly would cast them into a negative light.

            The undermining of the free press ideal that was internalized in those decades earlier has grown in their scope as government interests have spread even more both domestically and internationally. As a result of the American government and political system’s deeper embedding with Wall Street, the nation’s media has been dragged along to spread their policy of journalistic “non-aggression” from not just each outlet’s advertisers to the interests of the financial sector. Just as the mainstream media has resisted challenging the American political machine for years and casting the blatant offenders as “bad apples” and rarely questioning any aspects of our system’s own dysfunction; much of the same treatment is how scandals in the financial industry are handled.

            Seldes and Stone’s work proves that there have been resistances to the mainstream media’s passive embedding with outside forces that greatly compromise journalistic values. The scary part is that not only has government embedding become more pronounced but the embedding policy has been spread to other influential groups to the point where the “news” is a simply a filtered cigarette. The media gives whatever the intrigue, which like nicotine will keep the audience craving what keeps them hooked. The smoke the American public inhales is a slanted message from one of the powerful groups that are embedded with the media. The ulterior motivates in the messages may vary but in general they encourage the public to be equally as docile and receptive to their agenda as the media that transmitted them.

            Seldes and Stone dedicated most of their careers to revealing the truth and informing the public, in this era it usually is more difficult to perform the type that of journalism for many reasons. Globalization has intertwined politics, media, and business around the world making the issues as well as their censorship a complex task to understand let along report on. Even if you believe you have the full story getting a media outlet that will publish the story that has a decent exposure is also difficult. The fact that is it easier to self-publish is both a blessing and a curse, as the Internet has become hard to navigate with a massive clutter of individuals all vying at once for attention.

            In the end Seldes and Stone have not been celebrated enough in the wider education of media, which also speaks volumes about what role models most want to set for future journalists.