Our friend Jerry over at Grumpy’s Grumblings has a new post that is spot on regarding the state of truth in our nation today.  It is well worth the few minutes it will take you to read and ponder it, for one must ask the question:  Is this the new ‘normal’ or can we fix this?  Thank you, Jerry, for your thoughtful words!

When Tropes Trump Truth

I have a journalism degree and I worked within the newspaper industry for nearly two decades. While I never worked as a “hard-news” reporter, I did spend a year as a copy editor and also wrote feature stories for the business pages of several newspapers. So, I think I have a better-than-average understanding of how a newsroom is meant to operate.

But with or without a journalism degree, I think most folks know—or, more precisely, knew—what the primary purpose of any news organization should be: to factually inform its readers or viewers about events and phenomena that have occurred or are occurring within their communities—and beyond.

Forgivable Errors Versus Intentional Misreporting

News reporters are fallible humans who occasionally make mistakes in their reporting. Most of us are willing to forgive those relatively rare reporting inaccuracies. Occasional unintentional mistakes are forgivable. Intentional misreporting is—or should be— intolerable.

Read the rest of Jerry’s post here …