In the Wake of D.C. Mayhem, the Role of Truth Tellers Is More Important Than Ever

By: Joyce Barnathan | 01/07/2021
Photo credit: Architect of the Capitol

We all may have thought that 2021 would be a more sane year after what we have been through in 2020. What happened Wednesday in Washington, D.C., made it clear that it isn’t. Throughout the past four years, many of us have worried when political leaders don’t honor truth (no less the U.S. Constitution). And now, we see the havoc that can happen when they don’t.

For me, this is the key lesson: We need to defend the truth. We need to communicate it better. If political leaders claim that elections were rigged, not on the basis of fact, but because they don’t like losing, they still influence their disaffected supporters who believe the lies. As Republican Senator Mitt Romney so eloquently put it: “The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth.”

Journalism has a fundamental role to play in ensuring that the electorate understands deception and lies and disinformation. Yesterday shows that key swaths of the U.S. population no longer rely on legitimate journalistic sources for their information. It is urgent that those of us who believe in truth-telling—indeed, in democracy itself— support, defend and amplify the work of journalists in the U.S. and abroad, so that angry and ill-informed mobs don’t defile our Congress, or any parliament anywhere.

Empowering the truth tellers is so important this year. We need to ensure that journalists have the tools, training and resources to effectively communicate what’s really happening, and organizations like ICFJ can help them. Otherwise, reporters risk inadvertently purveying fictitious versions of reality spread by demagogues in elected office.

And while this may seem like exclusively a U.S. story, we know that the world is watching. Despots in countries without the safeguards we have in the United States have used the demagoguery they see here to justify their own. Through our work across the world, we have been humbled by journalists who have dealt with even worse assaults than what we saw yesterday. They have much to teach us.

I feel motivated—and not depressed—about the future. We can shape it, and I believe we will make it better by empowering people with trustworthy news.

 

 

Latest News

A Reporter's Guide to The History of Tariffs

For most of human history, governments have taxed goods crossing their borders. Tariffs — taxes levied on imports or exports — have financed empires, protected domestic industries, and punished foreign rivals. They’ve sparked wars, crashed economies, and redefined alliances. Yet today’s tariff war between the United States and the world doesn’t fit neatly into any of the old molds. Rather than being a tool to nurture domestic industry or fill government coffers, tariffs are now being wielded as weapons in a sprawling contest over global power and economic dominance.

Hans Staiger Award Winner Investigates Russian Soldiers Secretly Treated in Belarus Hospitals, Including Those Linked to War Crimes

Leaked data from the Russian Defense Ministry shook the story loose. A team of investigators found that during the first 21 months of the invasion of Ukraine, nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers were treated at Belarusian hospitals, including war crime suspects. These “secret patients,” as they were known, directly tied Belarus to Moscow’s war effort.

I Blew Up on TikTok with Journalism — Here's How You Can, Too

l'll never forget the day when an editor at the BBC told a 25-year-old me that journalists shouldn’t be on TikTok because “there’s so much misinformation on there.” By that point, I had maybe 10,000 followers on the platform, possibly more, and the comment stung. My TikToks, which had amplified my journalism as well as my passion for learning new languages, were well researched and I hoped the direct opposite of misinformation.