The Gift of Journalistic Integrity

Christie Blatchford 1951 - 2020 | Journalist par excellence

Do not leap to conclusions.

1. Feelings are not facts. Do not confuse the two.
2. Develop your own moral intelligence and judge actions objectively.

Weigh facts according to rigorous standards.

1. Primary sources are required.
2. Avoid filtering facts through a biased mindset or framework, e.g., a political orientation.

Do not trust nor support the court of public opinion because mainstream media editors who fuel public discourse, largely to maintain or increase market share and profit,

1. compress and distill information to the point that nuance is lost; and because they
2. lack the necessary intellectual formation to comprehend and analyze a subject. They cannot and do not represent issues in a fair, accurate, constructive and thorough manner. Thus, the "news" is too often nothing more than a jumble of juxtapositions and speculation amounting to coffeeshop gossip.

There are reliable journalists. Most reliable journalists work for alternative media organizations. Catholic journalists who work for Catholic publications are among the best. There are, of course, organizations that use the Catholic label but are anything but reliable. They exist to draw the attention of people who are merely interested in polemics, and to provide opportunities for self righteous people to salivate at the destruction of reputations and lives.

Journalists who are practicing Catholics are the most reliable conveyors of information because they actually believe that the communication of the truth requires integrity and precision. They understand that reality 'is', and it's their vocation to focus us on reality, which helps us to avoid surrendering to the product of someone else's twisted imagination.

Humility is a virtue for journalists that is conspicuously lacking among members of a profession upon which societies rely for the preservation of democracy. Where there is little or no journalistic integrity, such a society is already in the grip of decay. A society that cannot speak the truth to itself - the truth, as in the whole truth and nothing but the truth - will inevitably settle for something far less. That 'far less' is the inhumane and the barbaric.