James L’Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Dr. Paromita Pain
Summer 2019
“Mainstream media” is a phrase that can be traced all the way back to the early 1970s as found in a Chicago Sun-Times article concerning Beacon Press and the Pentagon Papers;
“but the mainstream media shied away from Blanshard’s vociferous attack on one of America’s most influential denominations.” (Sun-Times)
This was in relation to a dispute between Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and an article published relating to funding of parochial schools. Nowadays, the term has become synonymous with the big names such as CBS, NBC, CNN and similar multifaceted entities with presence across the board in news reporting. Although it has come under strong criticism lately as being the source of what has been characterized as “fake news,” these companies may still be the most reliable sources of up to date and accurate stories.
There are any number of lists as to who qualifies as “mainstream,” at least one that is useful is that found at Wikipedia although how current it may be is questionable. (WHPC, Wikipedia) The White House Press Corps (WHPC) list contains well over 200 correspondents all of whom would have a presence on Twitter, considered as reliable sources for reporting the news. All, again, would ideally be credentialled reporters and journalists as the major news organizations presumably hire only those who have bona-fide degrees from colleges and universities. So what about everybody else on Twitter who claim to be “reporters” and “journalists?” (Photo: Barkha Dutt of India, Twitter)
Even though a given news organization might appear on the current WHPC list, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has credibility in the eyes of the public. The watchdog group, Statista, provides data on just how Jane and Joe Average view a particular news agency. For example, the graph of Huffington Post reveals the following;
“Approximately 13 percent of registered voters in the United States view the Huffington Post as a very credible source of political news and information.” (Statista)
The graph also shows that 25% consider the agency “Somewhat credible.” Curiously, the graph also shows that nearly as many of those polled, 12%, have “Never heard of” the organization. On Twitter, HuffPost boasts 11.4 million followers, which is one-fourth of what the New York Times lists as their Twitter base. (Twitter) Several things can account for the status of a particular agency such as its bias and as important, the credentials of the reporters. It’s nothing new that bogus college degrees could be purchased without even spending one semester in class.
“Operation Dipscam” was initiated by the FBI as long ago as the early 1980s in order to crack down on mail order college diplomas;
“40 diplomas with transcripts were purchased, 16 federal search warrants were executed, 19 Federal grand jury indictments were returned, 40 schools were dismantled, and over 20 convictions were obtained.” (WikiVisually)
The article reports that over 12,000 “graduates” were identified. Note the use of the word “scam” in the operation, yet another precursor to modern internet-style language. How does all of this have relevance today?
Twitter , the worldwide social media network of brief messaging where tweets are limited to a given number of characters, where the particular page has “Followers” that read and react to each tweet through commenting, sharing and “liking,” is currently the most popular site for news reporting, most of which is instantaneous. It is the home of most of the bona-fide “mainstream” news organizations, the “Dedicated” credentialled reporter and journalist. It is also the home of everybody else, for whatever purpose, including the fake, non-credentialled reporter and journalist, the “Dilettante.”
According to the Haje Jan Kamps article in Medium in 2015;
“Looking at the (above) graph, you’ll spot that even though Journalists make up 25% of the Verified users, they have a relatively modest number of followers (avg: 140k). Musicians are the obvious big outlier here, with on average 10x more followers than the average journalist.” (Haje, Medium)
This brings into the spotlight the concept of the “verified” account and its deeper implications of the “dipscam diploma” and its relevant byproduct, “fake news.” Although there is no direct evidence that fake news is the result of those who have not just fake credentials but fake accounts on Twitter as well, it would seem reasonable speculation that they would be the ones who stand the most to gain if their post, and link to some clickbait blog, went viral, attracting scores of followers in the process.
Top current verified journalist accounts can be found in the recent Andrew Mercier story of the state of Twitter journalists, 2017:
“This top 10 has some notable changes from 2013, mostly the inclusion of some journalists in India. Maybe to no one’s surprise, CNN’s Anderson Cooper remains on top.” (Mercier, MuckRack)
Those included from India are Barkha Dutt, with 6.9 million followers and Rajdeep Sardesai with nearly 9 million followers. (Twitter)
The “Dilettante” style of reporting has become very acceptable on Twitter, with some of the non-credentialled so-called, self-styled “journalists” not required to show their papers. Take, for instance, the recent story concerning a “secret” Facebook group allegedly with members from the Customs and Border and Protection (CBP) agency of the Department of Homeland Security. The group called itself the “I’m 10-15” and the story first appeared in ProPublica in an article by AC Thompson;
“ProPublica received images of several recent discussions in the 10-15 Facebook group and was able to link the participants in those online conversations to apparently legitimate Facebook profiles belonging to Border Patrol agents,” (Thompson, Propublica)
However, when that reporter tried to contact the particular users for verification, he failed. This is standard operating procedure that hints at fake news. It is a byproduct of years of mainstream media’s referencing “anonymous” sources that are taken to be credible, however unacceptable and unscrupulous the practice may be. Thompson’s only real claim to credibility is a brief bio at Wikipedia stating he was on the faculty at New College of California. In fact, that particular institution had its accreditation revoked in 2007 for dubious financial aid dealings. (New College, Wikipedia) This may or may not be an example of one of those so-called mail order dipscam diploma colleges.
Attempting to follow up on the story at The Intercept, yet another reporter with dubious credentials, Ryan Devereux, adds to the unsubstantiated story on July 5, referencing alleged CBP agents by name;
“Hendricks deleted his account soon after the ProPublica story broke. Garcia and Nunez did not respond to requests for comment.” (Devereux, The Intercept)
Devereux is described at the The Intercept as “award-winning investigative journalist,” with no credentials listed. He has over 25 thousand followers on Twitter. (Twitter)
Media Bias/Fact Check has this to say about The Intercept;
“They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.” (Media Bias)
Not only are the reporters at ProPublica and The Intercept lacking in any bona-fide papers, their particular online agencies appear to be under the scrutiny of media watchdogs.
Credibility in news reporting has taken a major back seat in the industry due to any number of more immediate concerns. They include primarily advertising, sponsorship, deadlines at the expense of trustworthiness of sources and verification of facts. In the end, the credible journalist working at a reliable organization finds himself hashtagged in the same Twitter category as the phony, the hack, out to deceive and deflect, many of whom have ten times the followers, all gullible and quick to react and condemn.
Works Cited
Sun-Times, Beacon Press, https://www.beacon.org/Assets/PDFs/pentagon_35.pdf
Press Corps, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_press_corps
Huff Post, https://www.statista.com/statistics/649139/huffington-post-credibility-usa/
Huff Post-Twitter, https://twitter.com/HuffPost
Op Dipscam, https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Operation_Dipscam
Jan Kamps, H., Verified, https://medium.com/@Haje/who-are-twitter-s-verified-users-af976fc1b032
Mercier, A., https://muckrack.com/blog/2017/07/31/the-2017-state-of-journalism-on-twitter
Dutt-Twitter, https://twitter.com/BDUTT
Sardesai-Twitter, https://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep
“I’m 10-15”, https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes
New College, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_College_of_California#Revocation_of_accreditation_and_financial_collapse
Devereux, R., https://theintercept.com/2019/07/05/border-patrol-facebook-group/
Devereux-Twitter, https://twitter.com/rdevro
The Intercept, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-intercept/