Do you believe journalists report the truth? Why or why not?

The legendary Johnny Cash once sang: "Can you blame the voice of youth, for asking/ What is truth?"

Pictured: the voice of a generation of truth seekers

Before asking whether or not journalists report the truth, a better question, perhaps, is what is truth? The answer is complicated- truth, especially when applied in the world of journalism, depends on sorting through the facts at one's disposal to tell the most accurate story of what took place. As more news is uncovered and more details come to light, the truth of a story may shift and change. Two journalistic goals, therefore, are correspondence and coherence: getting the facts straight while making sense of them. While its overall nature may be subjective, it's still important that truth remain the objective for all reporters to strive for. As those who essentially discover and direct what information we receive, dedication to providing accurate news (the basis for accurate opinions) should be their top priority. Is it?

Polls show trust in the media is at an all time low, and that journalists rank in the bottom tier of trustworthy occupations, hovering somewhere between bankers and politicians. Clearly, the public doesn't think so. Just turning on the television bombards the viewer with reporters slandering the coverage of other reporters, while talk radio is closer to "yell-and-bicker radio" than civil discourse. So apparently journalists don't think journalists tell the truth either.

Personally, I feel that journalists, in general, tell the truth. Or at least they intend to. Speaking generally, no journalist sets out to tell a completely fabricated story to the public. However, their human bias tints the perspective of any reporter, resulting in sometimes distorted accounts of what the truth is.

Truth is like Instagram, only slightly more filtered

So while I believe journalists report the truth, I also believe that truth's subjective nature sometimes makes it hard to judge it accurately. It's easy to point fingers and blame our news agencies for distorted truth while ignoring our own sizable biases. Thus, while journalists may strive to report only the truth, it takes extensive self-judgement to publish an unbiased truth.
Of course, some less than scrupulous journalists disregard this whole business of truth-telling and just straight-up lie. But that's a good way to end up, as Johnny Cash put it, "stuck in Folsom Prison."

Check out this link for the Edelman Trust Barometer, which measures the levels of trust in various institutions, including the media.