Journalism's vaccine against public stupidity

 

If there’s a vaccine we need, it’s the vaccine against willful ignorance and plain stupidity. We see this in the utterances of vaccine sceptics, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.

“A gaggle of morons (translated)”, ranted a Mexican news anchor. That’s what they are.

Morons aside, what we need today is herd immunity from the stupidity that’s latching on our current crop of politicians, the “shameless public imbecile”, as a local writer aptly described.

Of late, imbecility has stuck out its shameless head in the frequent political Fubah (fouled up beyond all hope) reported in the media.

Here’s are some samples - the off-cuff remark on orangutans and oil palm, the prime minister’s finger-pointing in the disastrous response to the flash floods, the Dewan Rakyat speaker’s denial of a motion to debate MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki’s shareholdings, and an NGO’s sycophantic call to stop the “victimisation” of Najib.

That’s just the outer layers of a bawang merah (onion). At the core of this teary stupidity, besides the comical comments of small-minded zealots, is the anachronistic call - ‘Untuk agama, bangsa dan negara’ - that is razing the country to the ground.

The Sheraton Move in February 2020 exposed the intellectual vacuum in the current cabinet. Political inanities, hence the consequential poor governance, should not obscure their stumbling block to the country’s social capital development.

To arrest this national slide, we turn to journalists to build the cognitive defences against the stupidity from infecting the community.

Asking the hard questions

Here’s what journalists can do - investigate the issues. Ask the hard questions: how, why, what now? Questions that readers have consistently asked in the comments section.

Journalists should hold politicians accountable. Unquestioning acceptance of the utterances of those who govern is bad journalism.

Good journalism comes from critical thinking. Good journalists should have the intellectual capacity to research, analyse, evaluate and contextualise issues to changing realities when they write up their feature stories and in-depth reports.

Looking back to my typewriter reporting work decades ago, the push for journalistic excellence felt like clutching at a spider’s web wavering in the wind. It still feels that way.

Have our reports and commentaries made indelible dents on the thinking and mindsets at Putrajaya and Dewan Rakyat? Not much that I can see.

Regardless, journalists with a conviction that they can make a difference should persist in investigating, probing, confronting and writing up their articles for positive change.

The power of journalism

A quote from Malcolm X is informative here. It reminds journalists of what they should not commit in their line of duty.

Speaking at Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on Dec 13, 1964, two months before he was assassinated, the civil rights activist said: “The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal…

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

However, knowing what’s wrong with journalism does not necessarily prompt professional journalists to consciously do something to fix it. Prioritising the views of those in power is the default.

Hence, readers do play a significant part in reminding journalists of their duty to hold political leaders to account.

The risks that journalists in India and the Philippines, some of whom I have met in my previous life as a media academic, often reminds me of the journalist’s moral obligation to their readers - to do what is right, to tenaciously investigate matters of public interest, to expose social injustices, to unravel the truths behind the cover-ups of poor governance and systemic corruption.

What is guaranteed for journalists, even under a controlled regime, is the freedom to think. That, the government can’t take away. Questions that deserve to be asked must be asked.

In today’s more open Malaysian media environment, conscientious journalists - and their readers - should get their triple jabs in the arm to stall the country slipping further into mediocrity, if we’re not already there. - Mkini

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ERIC LOO was a journalist and media academic.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.