As you may recall, two reporters (Jane Akre and Steve Wilson) in Florida were fired for refusing to lie about rbGH in their reporting. The firings resulted in a court battle, over the Fox station's right to fire reporters who refused to report what they knew to be false.
"We needed someone in the business to explain to the jury why reporters don't lie on television," Wilson, 57, told the Tampa Liberal Examiner from his Detroit home. He has served as the chief investigative reporter for WXYZ-TV since 2001.
Wilson remembers dialing up news directors and media think tanks, but no one wanted to fight Fox.
"Everybody told us we were crazy," he chuckled. "They said you cannot beat someone with pockets as deep as Rupert Murdoch's."
Walter Cronkite, it turned out, was happy to give a deposition about the ethics of journalism.
"He was appalled at what had happened," Wilson said.
That sounds very much like the Walter Cronkite who has been remembered over the past week. And it speaks volumes to the decline in media following his retirement that no one else would stand up for the truth. Only Cronkite would stand up and testify, saying that a journalist "should not go a microinch towards that sort of thing [misleading the public]. That is a violation of every principle of good journalism."
What's sad but funny is Fox's reaction to Cronkite's testimony. They argued that he was not an expert. Are you kidding me? The man whose name is synonymous with news broadcasting is not an expert in news broadcasting and journalism? And up is down, black is white, freedom is slavery...
Wilson and Akre lost their case (Akre won and lost in an appeal. The article goes on to say:
Cronkite's final sign off tonight, though without words, says so much about the death of fair journalism.
Before he left the stand in that trial where business interests prevailed over ethical responsibility, Cronkite said this of today's journalists who face intimidation from their superiors:
"His duty is to protest as much as possible. I think his ultimate duty is to resign."
One can only imagine what our food system might look like if we had unbiased, uncompromising reporters like Cronkite providing us with the news each night. The real news, not the latest Republican sex scandal, or who Obama called "stupid," or whether or not the most qualified judge nominated to the Supreme Court in a century is a reverse racist. |
