Post-Truth: Fair and Balanced

When did it become the responsibility of journalists to be fair?

In the past, it was the responsibility of journalists to tell the truth. "Tell the truth and shame the devil" was the motto of a small local weekly I once worked for. When a person of note lied about an event, or their background, or someone else, the journalists at the paper worked to uncover the truth of the situation. Liars were called out whenever the truth could be found. Was that fair? Maybe not if you were the liar - but then you give up the right to protest how you're being treated when you lie. And victims of the lie certainly didn't protest when the truth was uncovered - because the lie hurt them and the truth helped to repair the damage.

But today journalists have to be fair - to find balance in their reporting. Accuse one side of an argument of doing something wrong and you must find something wrong on the other side to create a balance, to be fair. So in their quest for fairness, journalists help the liars to keep the truth covered up. You lied, but your opponent didn't. Gee - it wouldn't really be fair to point that out - so we'll just pretend that your lie wasn't. We've uncovered some shady things in your past - let's find some shady things on the other side to balance it out. Nothing shady on the other side? Shucks - now we have a dilemma. We can tell what we know - and risk being unfair - or we can pretend we don't know it and keep the balance. We keep the playing field even and we become liars in the process.
 
Life is not fair . . . Every child knows that fact - and journalists need to remember it. Start doing your real job again - tell the truth no matter the cost. And then we might not have to live in a "post-truth" world.