Honesty is the best public policy

At age 35 I first developed a serious interest in politics, government, public policy, and how those three interests actually worked together in the real world. I was tired of being ignorant, more confused than informed by daily news stories.

Living in New York a few years earlier I remember feeling so frustrated after reading a news report concerning New York’s State Assembly in Albany. “Albany?” I questioned myself. “I thought our government was in Washington, D.C. What’s with the government in Albany?”

That’s how ignorant I was. With basic guidance from a couple of acquaintances who were brilliant in their knowledge of politics, government, and public policy, I started educating myself by reading books, magazines, newspapers, and listening to/watching radio and tv shows.

Reading news reports of the same incident in three or four separate newspapers was an eye-opening education. At the time, living in Maryland, I read the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Morning Herald, The Washington Times, and the local Talbot Banner. Details within the same political news stories, told by different reporters with their own political leanings, often varied newspaper to newspaper.

The complete story was a blend of several newspaper reports.

Working at the Maine State House starting late 1989 I saw how reporters — print, radio, tv — reported on Republicans and Democrats. One State House print reporter said one thing he had learned on the job was, “If you ain’t in the majority you ain’t s**t.”

In plain English, the reporter meant there was little sense in reporting on Republican bills because they were the minority party. GOP bills only chance of becoming law was if the Democrat majority party approved.

That reporter’s perspective was a precursor to today’s “fake news.”

Is it a reporter’s job, if working for a general news outlet, to offer readers, viewers, or listeners daily State House accounts based on the idea that the only worthy ideas are majority party ideas?

Such biased reporting was bound to alienate legislative districts with minority party elected officials. Any individual not subscribing, in whole or in part, to majority party ideas was also turned off by such lopsided reporting.

But, pre-internet there wasn’t much choice.

The internet changed everything for political news reporting. The public had an unlimited number of places to go for political information — including going right to the sources: elected officials, party officials, special interest groups.

The public formed online discussion groups to learn and talk about political issues. Recently, the combination of smart phones with live chat and live video streaming are opening more and immediate ways for people to gather, report, and discuss political news.

So news readers who do not favor Democrat policies, or who might favor Democrat policies, but would like to decide issues based on facts from all sides, are no longer limited on where they get their news.

I think news outlets are where they were when I started reading four daily newspapers to get details of one political news story. But news outlets’ allegiance to Right and Left politics has hardened — which is okay.

It’s also where the “fake news” tag comes in.

Where political news outlets get into trouble is in pretending to be what they are not: Objective News Outlets (ONO).

That fact is undeniable. And the Left biased news outlets pretending to be ONOs further alienate the public by lashing out at them: “Are you so stupid you can’t acknowledge our objectivity in political reporting?”

A better approach? Biased political reporting is easy to spot and avoid. So political news outlets may as well be honest. After all these years, honesty is still the best public policy.

Scott K. Fish has served as a communications staffer for Maine Senate and House Republican caucuses, and was communications director for Senate President Kevin Raye. He founded and edited AsMaineGoes.com and served as director of communications/public relations for Maine’s Department of Corrections until 2015. He is now using his communications skills to serve clients in the private sector.