So how do we fight this war? Let's change the rules! Here are some suggestions:
1) From now through Nov. 4, let's not make fact-checking a secondary task, but our No. 1 duty -- the thing that belongs on Page One, not on A17 (and in the upper corner of our Web sites, as soon as a new ad or dubious claim hits the airwaves.) In an era when campaigns have enormous control over the message and the news cycle, fact-checking in the one value-added service that only a newsroom can bring, a real contribution to the democratic process. We've seen in 2008 that we're not keeping the candidates' honest, but WE can go over their heads to the public.
2) Now is the time to lose our pathological fear of the word "lie." It's not only a perfectly good word in the English language, but it's the best word when a politician says "red" and the undisputed truth is "green." We talk and talk and talk about our right to a free press in America -- well this is what a free press is all about, when we are free to decide when someone is empirically dishonest and to tell our community all about it.
3) This one isn't my idea -- it was Marc Ambinder's, I believe -- but it's a great suggestion so I'm going to pass it along. Increasingly, campaigns are developing "commercials" that aren't even broadcast but appear only on their Web site, with the main purpose that we then write stories about them. Let's not. If they want people to see their video press releases, there's plenty of ways to do that without involving us.
4) Ditto for the candidates' families. They don't want us to cover their kids -- so we shouldn't. That means no more stories about Bristol Palin's pregnancy, but also no more stories about Palin's son fighting in Iraq, or puff pieces about her raising a special needs child (like this one) or cute photo spreads of the Obama kids, etc. A rule is a rule.
5) In our diminished state, journalists need to think of ourselves as less as competitors and start thinking of ways that we collaborate more often, with our common goal of amplifying the truth and reaching as many voters as possible in the next seven weeks. When one news organization has a scoop that peels away the layers of deception and spin, 2008 is the time to stop the old games of ignoring it or cutting down, and let's all push it forward. (It's too late for this time, but in 2012 I'd love to see something like the Arizona Project for presidential elections, when newsrooms pool their resources to get the full measure of the candidates.) The ability to divide and conquer is one reason that candidates get away with their lies.
6) Think outside the box -- way outside the box. Make truth-telling our crusade, but don't make it deathly dull -- call ourselves "The Truth Party" and post our own Internet "campaign ads" disproving THEIR campaign ads on our Web sites -- and for God sakes make them funny. Remember what Janice Joplin/Kris Kristofferson said, that freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. If there was ever a time to be free, to experiment, to be in a war and actually fight back, that day is today!
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Theyve_declared_war_on_the_media_--_so_its_time_to_fight_back.html
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