Do journalists serve me?

I don't have any intense hatred or distrust toward journalists. I think that for the most part they do report the news, and do so in an interesting and thought-provoking way. However, the truth is often twisted to make it more pleasing to certain groups. This is a problem, but I don't think it will ever change, because the slanted truth is what the citizens want to hear.

In this video, MSNBC is shown to have doctored a quote from Libertarian senator Ron Paul. In doing so, they were answering the demands of their predominantly liberal audience who wanted to perceive all conservatives as heartless racists, but they were not serving the truth, which should be the more important goal.

(Watch until 1:25)

Another issue with modern journalism that prevents journalists from appropriately serving citizens is assuming that their news organization has all the answers, which causes them to sometimes report in error. ABC reporter Brian Ross, who I mentioned in my first blog post, was guilty of this when he accused the Aurora movie theater shooter of being a Tea Party member. The story he told did nothing to serve the citizens because it was a blatant lie that would have easily been avoided if he'd looked into the issue further. If he'd truly wanted to serve the citizens, he would have checked his facts, rather than assume that his knowledge was correct.

However, despite all the negative examples of journalists lying and twisting facts, there are some who do truly strive to serve their citizens and the community. It's nice when their efforts are recognized:
http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/19273988/article-Star-journalists-serve-community?instance=top_center_featured