I disagree.
The media needs competition. It is a corrupt, massively effective propaganda organ for the left.
What America needs is more journalism. By everyone. First Amendment Rights should be more broadly protected. For everyone.
That is my view anyway.
You’re right. What wastoute and so many others fail to understand is that propagandists ARE journalists, just of a different kind then straight news reporters.
It’s one thing to complain that there are fewer straight news reporters around, but journalism as a field encompasses so many different kinds of communication that to think straight-up reporting is the only true form of journalism is just ignorant.
I agree, ideally more liberty is the direction to move but a mechanism to restrain antisocial behavior is wanting and needs to be found. Quickly. We have tried shame for decades but shame is water off a duck to those who lack morals. Something that works is needed and fast. While force is a last resort we need to understand just where we are in history. As in science, books are 5 years out of date when published. Our perceptions as a whole are inevitably behind reality by varying amounts, individually. Those of us paying careful attention are closer to reality, IMHO.
In any case, our first step toward restoring our Republic needs to be fixing the broken MSM. Prosecuting the criminals seems to me to be the time tested way of restraining the behavior of those incapable of self governance.
Libel and slander and fraud should be prosecuted, yes, but journalism also includes opinion writing, creative writing, documentaries, cause advocacy, restaurant, product, and film reviews, all kinds of communication which can be highly subjective and prone to agenda-driven persuasive efforts and hype, spin, embellishment, you name it.
Even a coyple of liberal heavyweights on a discussion panel a couple of years ago complained about the dishonesty of the left-leaning MSM, and declared loudly that Bret Baer at FOX News had the ONLY true straight-up news report show on TV!
Straight news is the journalism commodity many bemoan as lacking and scarce, and it is, but unfortunately it’s very common that people think that the word “journalism” only refers to straight news.