Trust and truth are newspapers' currency

Credibility is the foundation of the American newspaper industry. Over the past two and a half centuries we’ve built that credibility by doggedly pursuing truth and fairly giving citizens the information they need to hold the folks in charge accountable.

But for the social media platforms in this digitally polarized political era, discerning the truth and editing for accuracy is apparently not worth the trouble, the expense and the legal exposure.

Legacy media such as newspapers are held civilly accountable for truthfulness. If we publish falsehoods intentionally or with malicious negligence, we face lawsuits for libel or defamation. But due to a deeply flawed federal law that was passed to protect startups in the fragile infancy of the internet, social media can’t be sued for their content as long as they don’t vet or edit the stuff. The result: a wild, wild west of communication.

American civilization is based on truth-telling. Our nation is built on hard work and the trust of a person’s word and handshake. But today, the value of truth is being shown the door by once unconceivably profitable social media giants. And the day that door slams on trust, we are all screwed.

Recently a professional group toured The Daily News in Galveston. During the visit, I explained how a newspaper gathers, vets and multi-sources information before publishing.

“To us, right is more important than first,” I said. “And being wrong means being potentially liable for damages.”

A hand came up. A lady asked if that’s also true for social media.

“No, social media is shielded by law. Someone can say the worst things about you, and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it,” I said.

The room became even quieter.

“Nothing?” she said. “That’s not right.”

“Well, take it up with your congressman,” I said.

A newspaper’s value is the trust it enjoys from its readers and advertisers. Our communities expect and deserve nothing less. But in a divided nation where generations of people have historically subscribed to the truth as a gold standard, social media now threatens to undermine trust in American institutions.

Some modern journalists want to hang out with the cool kids at the online lunch table. But that’s hard to do for newspaper folks, because newspapers are hard-wired to push for truth. Sharing false information is akin to a mortal sin for committed journalists in professional news organizations. We still believe “the truth will set you free.”

Our core belief — and the fact that the truth is an endangered species today — is something today’s newspapers should talk openly about with the public. We must defend the concept that no matter how uncomfortable or unpleasant, the truth is absolutely essential for citizens of our country, our states and our communities to make the best decisions.

Our newspapers’ product — credible, fairly conveyed information based on time-tested, truth-revealing processes — is news, not noise. Unfortunately, the noise getting more and more attention today is nothing more than opinion posing as fact, spewed without legal consequence and then posted on the social media platform that’s most friendly to the political persuasion of the writer.

Opinion posing as news is every bit as nutritious as cotton candy: tasty but void of substance. And it rots your teeth.

We are a nation anchored by free speech, and the strongest link in our anchor chain is the truth. When we accept false information as another flavor of “truth,” our anchor line for making critical decisions is broken.

Newspapers must defend and sell the value of truth-telling. We must shout from the rooftops, from our pages and from our websites that we are different. We’re different because our newspapers, unlike social media platforms, follow genuine standards and do our best to present the truth. Our readers trust us to do nothing less.

For a real newspaper, trust never takes a day off. And the truth never sleeps.