Media Outlets Don’t Belong in Back Pockets of Business
The Stevens Point City-Times has been blown off by two major organizations in the recent weeks.
The first was the Portage County Business Council. I admittedly know little about the group outside what is listed on their website. It appears to be a type of “club” designed to promote its members’ businesses, and I imagine it has a great deal of pull in the business world. That kind of “strength in numbers” can be very beneficial to local business.
The City-Times (and the voting public) was barred from attending a candidate forum held by the council prior to the Nov. 6 election. You saw the coverage of assembly candidates Shankland and Testin through other news sources because those organizations hold a membership in the business council.
We don’t. And we did that for a reason.
The PCBC is funded in part by membership fees, but also receives money from local governments (ergo, taxpayer- funded). Despite this, events that ought to be open to the public as a “stand alone” event such as a candidate forum are notably closed to nonmembers- including us.
We weren’t interested in eating from the buffet or attending a members- only social function. We intended to cover & report news vital to the electorate: that of a political forum. That it was closed to any member of the media shows how deeply the Fourth Estate has ingrained itself with conflicting parties of business. Paying a membership fee might make a reporter’s job easier. That doesn’t mean its right.
The Fourth Estate is referred to as such because it is just that: a separate “estate” of society. We observe. We report. End of story.
The second was Ministry/St. Michael’s. Several months ago, the City-Times was the first local publication to confirm and break the news of a local breast cancer center Ministry was working to create. We recently received word that another local publication had been given the full story, but no information would be released to us because hospital officials were not “comfortable” with us, as we were “not established” in the community.
Officials made it clear our questions would not be answered until after other said publication ran its own story first.
We were instructed to submit a list of questions via email, at which point officials could determine which hospital staff members would be best to answer. Eventually, the appropriate staff members would get back to us.
The reason behind this cumbersome procedure was because hospital officials haven’t finished “researching” our publication and staff members, as though we were an organization to be vetted prior to being deemed friend or foe.
I’ve got news for you. The media is not here to be your friend.
We don’t bow to big business, nor does the size of one’s pocketbook, stock portfolio or Brandy snifter make us uncomfortable. The media isn’t supposed to buckle under the weight of threats, pressure or exclusion from events. We report facts, which are neutral by definition.
Members of the media have clawed their way into relevance since even before the time of Gutenberg’s printing press. True journalists should do so without influence from any organization within a community. It is why we have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, a country. It is one reason Wisconsin has a Press Shield Law.
This type of attitude towards media isn’t necessarily the fault of those who display it. It does, however, show part of the damage larger news organizations can do to the integrity of the media as a whole when they violate ethical codes of journalism. Those violations become accepted as a social norm, and lines are of objectivity become blurred. Sooner or later, a journalist can’t tell right from wrong; and then, the reader is left with little matter by which to determine fact from fiction.