Bob Schwartz

I have been an avid news consumer for as long as I could read, starting around age eight, when I scurried down to the local 7-11 to pick up the fat Sunday newspapers (when newspapers were fat and only on paper). I watched TV news too. This has gone on, with digital additions, for decades.

I am pretty good at discerning news quality—clarity, depth, intelligence, fairness and independence. There have long been publications, and later broadcasters, that stood above the rest. News gatherers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even the Wall Street Journal, which with a very strong editorial and opinion point of view, left the reporting side to do their work unhindered. On TV, the legacy networks of CBS, NBC and ABC built respected news operations. Then CNN came along and invented quality news reporting 24/7.

Which is what makes being skeptical, if not downright dismissive, of these news media difficult. The fact is I still subscribe to and read the Times, the Post and the Journal. And I still check in with CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC once in a while, though always now with a jaundiced eye and ear.

My first and primary read each day is the Guardian, my best weekly read is the Economist, both world-class news publications from the UK. First TV watch are Sky News and BBC ( both UK) and CBC (Canada). Besides their quality, the reason is simple.

Many American news media, including some of the historically legendary ones, are either afraid of the administration or sympathetic with its goals and strategies—or at least not doggedly pursuing unavoidable and undeniable truths.

It’s one thing to learn that a great musical artist you have loved had unfortunate ideological leanings. Well, you might reason, the politics are despicable but the songs remain irreplaceably great. I’ll keep listening and loving.

For the once-unassailable news media who, if not turning to the dark side, are at least averting their attention—and ours—it’s different. The news is their music. If what they are playing doesn’t sound as good and clear as it used to, we are, reluctantly, going to stop listening and trusting their clarity, depth, intelligence, fairness and independence.

We would love to come back to them. We’ll be back as soon as they are.