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By Mark Jacob
Journalism isn’t the mere act of turning on the microphones and letting politicians talk.
Journalism isn’t inviting proven liars to come on your TV show and lie to your audience, and then thanking them for it.
Journalism isn’t a process for normalizing a madman.
Journalism isn’t blaming “politics” or “division” instead of blaming the people who play politics and divide us.
Journalism isn’t entertainment.
Journalism isn’t done for the benefit of journalists.
Journalism isn’t listening to a lie by a lifelong liar and pretending to your audience that he might be telling the truth this one time.
Journalism isn’t a game of access that’s won when you avoid asking hard questions and doing follow-ups.
Journalism isn’t thinking the purpose of politics is to create a dramatic competition you can cover, rather than a way to choose leaders who will make people’s lives better.
Journalism isn’t describing plain old racism as something that’s “racially charged” or “racially tinged.”
Journalism isn’t presenting poll numbers as if they’re vote totals.
Journalism isn’t easily distracted.
Journalism isn’t reflexively finding fault with “both sides” as a posture of objectivity.
Journalism isn’t writing passive headlines that suggest a bad thing happened for some mysterious reason, even though the story itself tells you who was responsible.
Journalism isn’t throwing shade on positive news by using lame phrases like “doubts remain” or “the future is uncertain.”
Journalism isn’t helping unnamed sources take anonymous potshots at their enemies.
Journalism isn’t treating crime statistics as less important than the vibes of people in diners.
Journalism isn’t thinking one side’s lies and the other side’s truths constitute a “debate.”
Journalism isn’t self-promotion.
Journalism isn’t pretending dangerous people are not dangerous people because you don’t want those dangerous people coming after you.
Journalism isn’t using a campaign’s talking points as your list of questions when you interview their opponent.
Journalism isn’t ignoring important news because your competitor broke the story.
Journalism isn’t trivial.
Journalism isn’t presenting political criminals as amusing characters.
Journalism isn’t nodding your head during an interview as if you think the newsmaker is saying something reasonable, even though you know it’s batshit crazy.
Journalism isn’t the process of inventing clever euphemisms, such as praising a flip-flopping politician’s “ability to massage her message to the moment.”
Journalism isn’t interested in minimizing fascism.
Journalism isn’t assuming the best from the people who always give us their worst.
Journalism isn’t measured by clicks.
Journalism isn’t measured by ratings.
Journalism isn’t measured by salaries.
Journalism isn’t a task that’s possible if you tolerate lies.
Journalism isn’t easy, but it’s damn important, and more people in the news industry need to start doing it before they wake up one day and realize that journalism has become illegal.
