Back in 2005, CNN aired a piece on Lou Dobbs Tonight reporting that the US. had

7,000 new cases of leprosy in the previous three years because of unscreened illegal

immigrants

That figure was completely false.

Back then, the official leprosy statistics showed about 7,000 cases of leprosy over

the last 30 years, not the last three. But to Dobbs, who was my colleague at the

time, a lie was a more convenient way to advance his agenda of demonizing

undocumented immigrants.

“If we reported it, it’s a fact,” Dobbs said as Lesley Stahl eviscerated him for

as the 60 Minutes report that debunked Dobb’s fiction as “provocative.”

His work was not provocative. It was a lie given legitimacy by my own network

which emboldened Dobbs and so many other racist provocateurs while sidelining

critical reporting. To those of us at CNN reporting on the communities he

demonized, it was disheartening and insulting. What we didn’t know was that this

was just the beginning.

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, reporting and anchoring for local

TV, network news and cable -- places like NBC, WBZ-TV and CNN. I anchor and

co-produce, along with Hearst, a weekly political magazine show syndicated in 93%

of the country called Matter of Fact. I do a twice weekly podcast for Quake Media

using the ensuing slugfest to chase ratings, hits, subscriptions and advertisers.

Period. Fullstop.

In fact, the elevation of liars has accelerated, with radio, broadcast and cable TV

in particular, repeating and reenergizing lies that harm all of us. The bombast that

accompanies these lies, has also set the stage for an alarmingly xenophobic and

racist narrative that has taken hold in this country.

So how did we get here?

Michael Rich, CEO of Rand Corporation, where I am honored to serve as a

member of the board, defines what happened as “Truth Decay,” “the diminishing

role of facts and analysis in public life” -- in important conversations about policy

issues, policy decisions, and elections.

Truth Decay, Rand research shows, is

characterized by four trends:

- Increasing disagreement about facts

advertising dollars, like classified ads. Local news is the heartbeat of American

journalism where your town board gets the scrutiny it deserves. Losing local

coverage meant fewer facts, the glue of civic participation. It also meant a decline in

voter participation. A 2014 Study from George Washington University and

American University researchers concluded that "Citizens exposed to a lower

volume of coverage are ...less likely to vote ... regardless of levels of political

awareness, indicating that the deleterious consequences of a decline in local

coverage are widespread, not restricted to the least attentive citizens."

The decline in local coverage has even affected bond ratings. Paul Gao, a professor

of finance at the University of Notre Dame, who studied the decline of local news,

6,700 plus papers in the country – roughly 1,250 dailies and 5,500 weeklies – are

located in small and rural communities. The average circulation of weeklies –

which number around 5,500 – is 8,000. An estimated 1,800 communities which had

a local news outlet in 2004 were without one at the beginning of 2020.

Today the residents of these towns and cities have no place to find basic reporting,

on their planning

boards, their schools, their police. That has left an enormous void of information

with the possible exception of social media, which is too often an unfiltered,

unverified caldron of presumed fact and opinion. In the absence of many sources

for basic reporting, the public turned on their TVs, particularly in search of

political reporting.

“While local news shrinks, national news coverage by cable television like Fox and

MSNBC is growing and our understanding of news grows politicized and

polarized, pulling us apart,” has written Charles Sennott, founder of the Ground

way they leaned politically.

Here is the problem. TV hasn’t filled the void of in-depth reporting on America’s

communities by producing stories about policies that affect regular people, like

local taxes, climate change, quality education or infrastructure. Instead, it’s

become a place where facts go to die. TV, cable news in particular, relies on the

cheap and easy booking of talking heads who exchange colorful barbs,

entertaining outbursts and sometimes peddle outright fiction.

According to the Pew Research Center, between 2007 and 2012, the percent of

CNN evening programming filled with interviews jumped from 30% to 57%.

Airtime for edited packages (taped produced stories) dropped from 50% to 24%

legalizing same sex marriage was tantamount to the legalization of incest, became a

prime time pundit. Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to President Donald

Trump, introduced the media to the notion of “alternative facts” during an airing

of NBC’s Meet the Press. Conventional reporters and anchors, the so-called

professionals, started to behave like conspiracy theorists and entertainers. Rachel

Maddow of MSNBC speculated that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might

be a crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Lawrence O’Donnell advanced

the conspiracy that Russia orchestrated a chemical attack in Syria to help Trump.

They chased ratings and tossed aside objectivity to divide us into these false

categories of left and right, manipulating facts and using guests to pique the

interest of partisan viewers. Then they would break into tears or slam their fists on

their anchor desks as they debate the liars they booked for their very own shows.

Viewers, who come looking for information, instead get enraging contradictory

viewer 'arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statements

he makes....Whether the Court frames Mr. Carlson’s statements as

“exaggeration,” “non-literal commentary,” or simply bloviating for his audience,

the conclusion remains the same—the statements are not actionable."

The harm being done is profound. “If everyone is entitled to their own facts you

can no longer have reasoned disagreements and productive compromise.”says

Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

at Harvard University.

Moreover, the talking heads are not in the least representative of the

public. On Meet the Press,

Face the Nation, and This Week in 2015, according to Harvard's Shorenstein

The media isn’t diverse either, distorting the realities of American life even more.

workforce. It’s no wonder the media expressed shock when videos unveiled police

brutality, a phenomenon that is well known to communities of color.

All of this has eroded public trust. Seventy-two percent of Americans trusted the

media in 1976. By 2020 that number had fallen to 40%, according to Gallup.

So why did the media march down this road? Money. News organizations need

cheap ways to draw big ratings. Big ratings mean more ad dollars. It’s really that

simple. Leslie Moonves meant it when he said of the media’s coverage of

Trump,“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS” and “the

money’s rolling in, and this is fun ... It’s a terrible thing to say. But bring it on,

Donald. Keep going.”

That’s precisely what the media did more and more, as viewership -- and

of the news-entertainment complex. Knowing he would be entertaining, they went

wall-to-wall when he launched his campaign with another lie -- that Mexicans were

earned nearly $1.9 billion worth of free media attention from TV, print, and social

media. Trumps' GOP opponents collectively

received $1.159 billion in free media coverage. Hillary Clinton earned $746

million in free media coverage. Four years later, TV’s spotlight on lying has

become even more dangerous. Lies about the recent election propelled a swarm

of rioters, some carrying Blue Lives Matter flags, to attack those same blue lives

as they tried to stop the electoral vote count.

When news organizations make decisions based on ratings rather than responsible

reporting, disinformation flourishes. Important conversations are clouded, scrutiny

is reduced, and trust in our institutions erodes. The result is less civic engagement

and voting, and that exacerbates the damage already done by the decline of your

misinformation campaigns like QANON have too often gone mainstream. Thirty-

seven percent of Americans aren’t sure about whether "a group of Satan-

worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and

media." Thirty percent of the country does not accept the result of the 2020

election.

On April 25, 2019 the CDC reported 695 cases of the measles in the United States,

the highest number of cases reported since eliminating the disease. Why? Because

disinformation about the safety of vaccines had spread widely across social media

and been elevated as vaccine deniers get airtime. The Annenberg Public Policy

Center found that up to 20% of US adults were at least somewhat misinformed

about vaccines. Imagine what will be the impact if vaccine panic grows now that

COVID-19 vaccination is underway.

So what to do about all this?

Let me be clear. Congress can’t, and shouldn’t, regulate journalism in defiance of

disinformation in ways that have consequences for democracy. You can speak up,

like I am today, and encourage education that helps the public discern between fact

educate themselves on disinformation. And, me and my colleagues can also be

proactive

Here are some examples of what we in the media can and should do:

● Don’t book liars or advance lies. Sure, cover the fact that lies and

propaganda are being disseminated but don’t book people to lie on your

show because it elevates them and presents them as another “side.”

● Get out of the office and interview people all over the country of all different

backgrounds. Cable TV, in particular, infuriates Americans with elitist and

tone-deaf coverage that often ignores the plight of regular people.

and are more complicated. Take the time to unravel and report and give history

and context.

● Make sure that reporting and anchoring staff adheres to professional

standards by consistently speaking in a fair, accurate and balanced

reportorial voice that is absent opinion. People who traffic in opinion

should do only that and be labeled as that.

● Recognize that objectivity means having an open mind, not a lack of judgment.

If you don’t call a lie a lie or racism, racism, you empower the liar or the

racist.