By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

In the preamble of the Society of Professional Journalists ethical standards states that ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity. Unfortunately over the past few years we have witnessed the end of journalism in America!

In the ethical standards for journalists again states journalists should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

One of the top ethical standards for all journalists is that they should avoid any and all perceived bias and act independently, by avoiding conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

Listen to Ubaldi Reports Podcast 

The sad part which has perpetuated the death of journalism is that the media has aligned itself with the Democratic Party.

The weeks leading up to the eventual passage of the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill which was touted by President Biden on his address to the nation that this landmark legislation will help America recover from the coronavirus and revive a struggling economy.

Leading up to its passage, little was discussed of the substance of the Covid bill, beyond it will help the nation recover and revitalize the economy, but left out of the media coverage was any detailed analysis of this landmark legislation.

The mainstream media, who marches lockstep with whatever the Democrats want, never informed the American people that only 9% of the $1.9 trillion stimulus spending actually goes to dealing with the coronavirus.

Do the American people actually know what’s really in this bill?

Do they know that $350 billion is being sent to fiscally irresponsible states such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California? Even fiscally irresponsible cities such as Los Angeles will receive around $1.35 billion.

The metric that was used, states with the highest unemployment receive additional stimulus funding then states with low unemployment. Throughout the pandemic Texas and Florida and others were vilified by the media for their handling of the coronavirus, all because they were governed by Republicans. Data now shows the opposite was true as their economy weathered the impact far better than Democratic state governors.

The Democratic state governors have a much higher unemployment rate thus will receive more funding from the stimulus bill then their Republican state counterparts with lower state unemployment.

How many Americans know that the recently enacted covid relief package allocates $180 billion of additional funding to re-open the nation’s schools, this was already on top of the hundreds of billions allocated in last year’s stimulus packages and still many of the nation’s schools are still not open?

Has the media questioned why in many of these school districts such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Minneapolis and others before the schools closed that 70% of black and Hispanic children are deficient at grade level in math and English? No mention of this in any main stream media reporting why?

Do the American people know that $200 million goes to The Institute of Museum and Library Services, or $270 million funds the National Endowment of the Arts?

What about $86 billion to fund 200 pension plans that were badly mismanaged but will receive funding without any strings attached as many were managed by unions, who donate almost exclusively to Democrats? No mention of this by the media!

How about $1.5 billion that was allocated to Amtrack; how was this related to the coronavirus?

Missing from any coverage is the stimulus bill completely re-writes labor laws, completely ends any requirements for welfare recipients to actively seek employment, and completely expands the nation’s social programs unseen since the “Great Society” programs in the 1960’s that begun under President Lyndon Johnson. It also federalizes additional spending and prohibits any state from enacting tax cuts on the condition upon receiving any federal aid.

On Fox News Sunday Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut spoke about how this bill would be good for struggling Americans but he was never pressed on the other 91% that doesn’t go to fighting the coronavirus or its impact on the U.S. economy.

What was never reported by the mainstream media that during this same period the House passed H.R. 1, which is election reform? This piece of legislation passed the House in 2019, only to die in the Republican controlled Senate, now that Democrats control the Senate; this may pass and be signed by President Biden.

This piece of legislation virtually federalizes state elections in presidential contests virtually obliterating Section II of the U.S. Constitution which gives the states sole responsibility in this matter.

Some of the most egregious aspects of this are:

  1. Automatic voter registration, including using many colleges and universities as voter registration agencies and registering 16- and 17-year-olds.
  2. Abolish voter ID laws and only require a signature in the polling place to vote.
  3. Online voter registration without protections to verify the eligibility of the voter.
  4. Same day registration during early voting and on Election Day.
  5. Fifteen days of early voting, including minimum hours and requirements for locations.
  6. Restricting election officials’ efforts to maintain the accuracy of voter registration lists.
  7. Automatically restoring the right of felons to vote after release from prison.
  8. No-excuse absentee/mail voting with signature comparison verification available to all voters.
  9. Provisional ballots cast outside a voter’s precinct must be counted.
  10. Congressional redistricting done by an independent redistricting commission micromanaged by HR1’s provisions.

There was no debate; the media framed any opposition to H.R. 1 as perpetrated by their Democratic masters as virtually a return to Jim Crow racism.

The address by famed Russian dissident Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, who spent years in a Russian prison for his outspoken beliefs before being exiled to the west in the mid-1970’s gave a commencement address at Harvard University in 1978.

In his address Solzhenitsyn admonished the media; by stating, “What sort of responsibility does a journalist or a newspaper have to his readers, or to his history — or to history? If they have misled public opinion or the government by inaccurate information or wrong conclusions, do we know of any cases of public recognition and rectification of such mistakes by the same journalist or the same newspaper? It hardly ever happens because it would damage sales. A nation may be the victim of such a mistake, but the journalist usually always gets away with it.”

Solzhenitsyn continued to what the media is like today inside the United States of America, “Because instant and credible information has to be given, it becomes necessary to resort to guesswork, rumors, and suppositions to fill in the voids, and none — and none of them will ever be rectified; they will stay on in the readers’ memories. How many hasty, immature, superficial, and misleading judgments are expressed every day, confusing readers, without any verification. The press — The press can both simulate public opinion and miseducate it. Thus, we may see terrorists described as heroes, or secret matters pertaining to one’s nation’s defense publicly revealed, or we may witness shameless intrusion on the privacy of well-known people under the slogan: “Everyone is entitled to know everything.” But this is a false slogan, characteristic of a false era. People also have the right not to know and it’s a much more valuable one. The right not to have their divine souls [stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk.] A person who works and leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information.”

He finally concludes that “Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislative power, the executive, and the judiciary. And one would then like to ask: By what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? In the communist East a journalist is frankly appointed as a state official. But who has granted Western journalists their power, for how long a time, and with what prerogatives?”

These are just but a few examples of how the media failed to check its bias, but instead now has openly aligned itself with the Democratic Party.

Unless the media revives itself and returns to the fundamental aspect of journalism found in the Society of Journalistic Ethics the media as we know it today in America is dead!