THE TRUTH ISN’T FREE

In the aftermath of this election it’s easy to feel lost or hopeless. The daily onslaught of shocking events leaves us numb.
Fake news on the internet and boldface lies from our leaders leave us reeling.
Meanwhile, without our noticing, the news media has been co-opted by big money. Our news comes to us for free, mostly online these days, and as it costs less it’s worth less. What passes as information is often simply infomercial.
Now is the time to reclaim our voice. But it won’t come easily. Fortunes are made every day by keeping the status quo.
To take one example: what would happen if journalists began to seriously question the laws that protect the pharmaceutical industry?
For decades U.S. law has forbidden American citizens from filling their own prescriptions in Canada, where the identical drugs are sold at a fraction of the cost that we pay here.
As Stephen Brill writes in America’s Bitter Pill, the law forbidding importation was preserved as part of Obamacare because of the drug companies’ enormous clout.
Still, the news media is strangely silent on this unfortunate story. If anything, there is a vague perception that the FDA is protecting us against the dangers of foreign imports, which is exactly what we are meant to think.
Freedom of the press doesn’t mean that we get the truth for free. Good journalism takes good reporting, and that’s something that we have to start paying for again.
Otherwise we’ll be stuck with infomercials, fake news and radio silence.

Alice Feller is the Managing Editor at the Laney Tower. E-mail her at alicefeller 967(at)gmail.com.