Cyndi's Two Cents

A white lie is still a lie

Commentary.

In this column last week I voiced my displeasure with the decay of journalistic integrity in this country. I railed against the political agenda positioning and lack of ethics in national network news programs. Some of you who read that might feel that I was blaming the national media for all that is wrong in this country, but I believe this to be only a part of the problem.

I’m sure you most of you all familiar with the term “supply and demand.” For those who are not, Wikipedia defines it this way: In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium for price and quantity.

Overall, national news networks supply the programming that consumers demand. The media company (that may or may not be owned by a multi-national corporation with its own political agenda) that produces the “news” program does a lot of research to determine what Joe-consumer wants. They know approximately how many households and who in those households is watching the program. They are targeting a Joe-consumer who will purchase the insurance plan, new car, or smartphone being advertised during the program. If we would all turn off our television sets or change the channel when the national network news programs came on, ratings would crash and some changes would have to be made. If you don’t believe me, ask Katie Couric.

The bottom line is that it is about a whole lot more than decaying journalistic integrity. It is decaying integrity across the board. Many Americans are spoiled rotten. What a few years ago would have been labeled a behavioral problem is accepted behavior today. Narcissism, lack of sympathy, and questionable morals seems to be the norm.

So many people want instant gratification. They don’t want to have to work hard to earn anything. We might know our neighbors, but we don’t KNOW our neighbors the way we used to. We send text messages instead of telephoning our co-workers, friends and family.

There is an undercurrent of distrust and disrespect among the citizenry that I don’t remember feeling when I was younger. People are not only suspicious of lawmakers and others in positions of authority; they are suspicious of one another.

A white lie is still a lie. Stealing $2.00 from the cash drawer is still stealing. A volunteer first responder in a rural community who shares details of the condition of a young car accident victim is not only a gossipmonger; he or she is violating patient confidentiality and breaking the law. This lack of integrity and betrayal doesn’t make anyone – even a volunteer who has saved lives – a hero. It makes them a rube with a blue light and a shameful, disgrace to their community.