“American media know how to report on two parties that are essentially equal fighting for power. But when one side propagates and perpetuates ignorance and raises questions, basic facts, evidence, Then what is the press to solve that problem?” CNN principal media correspondent Brian Stelter said on “Reliable Sources.”
“That for me is probably the biggest conceptual as well as practical problem in political journalism today,” says Rosen.
There is no chapter on how to address democratic backwardness in the play of American journalism.
Rosen said the first thing news organizations have to do is declare they’re pro-democracy, pro-fact, pro-science, pro-evidence, and pro-voting. That means calling out the bad guys who are actively trying to undermine democracy, Rosen said.
“They have to find each of those new professionals, are we going to retire because they don’t meet that standard?” Rosen said. “And what are we going to start doing regularly that we haven’t done before?”
“You need an agenda that can counter misinformation or propaganda and captures very well what the voters want the campaign to be about,” says Rosen.
Rosen also advocates for an “emergency index” that measures democracy’s slide, using the knowledge of political scientists.
There is a difference between defending a democratic system and cheering for a candidate in that system, Rosen stresses.
“I don’t think journalists are as helpless as they sometimes present themselves when changes of this kind are proposed,” says Rosen.
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