Democracy is an idea that requires constant scrutiny and that job belongs to the fourth estate. For centuries newspapers around the country have been reporting on graft, corruption, and other political shenanigans. Because of the libel laws and the chance of being sued, newspapers have been fairly accurate in their investigative reporting. The television reporters like Walter Cronkite and many others with his standard of professionalism could be depended upon to report the truth. Others like Woodward and Bernstein have broken open some of the greatest political scandals in American History.

            After Cronkite retired, he spoke many times of how reporting was being diluted by the network’s cost cutting and the decreasing quality of journalists. Another reason he eluded this too is television stations and networks, like Fox, which reports the news through a philosophical lens and then fills the majority of the hour with editorials and opinions disguised as news. He said fewer and fewer people were able to tell the difference. To buttress Cronkite’s point Fox reporters have said one thing and during the rest of the hour a series of talking heads repeatedly espoused the opposite view. The viewer got ten minutes of truth and fifty of opinions hammering the viewer with fiction.

            The print media has been marching to a Waterloo of its own. First it was the consolidation of newspapers under a few people who weren’t concerned about real journalism and worthwhile impartial reporting. Second, the print media jumped into the internet without having a platform that produced an income and profit leading to their financial destruction. Third is a combination of the first two. The newspapers have reduced the physical size and started printing huge pictures, grafts, charts, and bulletin style articles to hide the fact they have fired a substantial number of their journalists.