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>>...Small and many other local reporters across the country have been forced to deal with an increasingly alarming trend in our media ecosystem — the nationalization of news led by outlets like Fox News, which often grab local stories, strip them of their context, and use them to push political agendas or conspiracy theories aimed at keeping their viewers angry...<<

Sadly, this is not just a right wing problem. Every time I hear a newscaster say, "false claims" or "so-call recount" or "President Trump's lies", I cringe. These sort of pejoratives used to have no place in mainstream news. I also cringe when I see local crime and crisis stories conflated with national arguments over gun control, global climate change or a host of other social/political causes. News media, whatever its political slant, has abandoned balance to become a weapon of advocacy, and as such, is destroying the value which society granted to the profession of journalism.

As my editor, Wilma Morrison of the old Oregon Journal,once told me, "It is not your job to reveal the truth. It is your job to fully and fairly report what others claim to be true."