It's broken. Fix it!

A so-called journalist once secretly recorded Justice Samuel Alito and his wife as she goaded them to comment on controversial topics.

Shameless. Broken. Pitiful.

David Brooks, columnist with the New York Times, and Christian convert through the witness of Tim Keller, said in reaction,

“I’m a journalist. We’re journalists...We make it clear that I work for the New York Times, the ‘Newshour’, the Washington Post...We don’t lie. We don’t misrepresent ourselves. We don’t hide a tape recorder somewhere, and we don’t lead people on with a bunch of ideological rants...It’s a complete breach of…the basic form of journalistic ethics.”

Then he got prophetic: speaking truth to power, right to the faces of his two conversation partners, Geoff Bennett of the PBS Newshour and E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post.

“And I was, frankly, stunned that all of us in our business just reported on it, just like straight up…It’s unfair to them, frankly, [for us] to treat this as some major news story...We should be treating it as somebody [who is] a prankster.”

Spot on. Go, David Brooks.

Now, your author is not so naive as to think journalism isn’t already broken. Nor that such stunts are only pulled by progressives.

I will, however, share my disappointment in the continued institutional decay all around us.

I have noticed more and more news correspondents leading with the phrases, “Unverified sources are saying...” or “We haven’t verified the following, but X,Y, Z.” The whole practice of verification is to provide reliable information! They are skipping an essential component of their craft that differentiates them from social media or The National Enquirer.

Journalism now perpetuates the dis/mis/mal-information of social media.

As Matron Mama Morton, the prison warden in the Broadway musical Chicago, sings, “Aint nobody’s got no class.”

Theological reflection?

1. The world is broken.
   “Sin entered the world through one man, death spread to all men because all sinned.” ~Romans 5:12

2. Christ-followers must push against the cultural decay all around us.
   “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” ~Jeremiah 29:7

3. No matter your vocational role or industry…“in all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people. Remember that you will receive your reward from the Lord, which he promised to his people. You are serving the Lord Christ.” ~Colossians 3:23-24

Come on; let’s fix it.