The Roots of Fake News: Objecting to Objective Journalism

<p>This book is neither a defense of, nor an attack on, journalism, but it is unashamedlyanchored in the traditional western belief that independent media are essential to any free andjust society. We do not believe that it is outdated or ironic to see the press as an essential partof a functioning democracy, a guard over the guardians, a speaker of truth to power, acomforter of the afflicted and an afflicter of the comfortable. On the contrary, we believe thatwithout a free press, both public discourse and maybe even democracy itself cannot existexcept as ugly caricatures of what they should be. Moreover, we fear that the press’s abilityto perform its essential functions is increasingly imperiled as it seems to be subject to attackand distrust at historically high levels. Its role as an agent in the social order – howeverdefined – appears threatened. But whether this might or might not amount to a crisis cannotbe addressed without a consideration of context; and that is our purpose here</p>