Disinformation - the New Normal   

   Some of you know that my career wasn't dependent on my speaking, acting, bookkeeping or - heaven forbid - singing ability. 

   I taught myself to type. Then came journalism studies, and newspaper work followed by years in corporate communications (mostly writing). Even in the Army - I was considered less a threat to national security as a Remington Ranger than with an M-16. Note to young readers: Remington made typewriters. Ask your grandparents what typewriters were.

   It was an unlikely career for a lousy English student. 

   I earned my livelihood writing for several years before beginning to learn how to write with the reader in mind. And I'm still learning. See, I can't quit. 

   What we learned in J-school was - not how to write - but that reporters write without bias. State the facts. If an official or witness makes a statement, quote them without injecting personal views. Write the story. Don't be the story. 

   Opinions belong in opinion columns, on the editorial page. 

   We've lost that modifying way of journalism, if it ever really existed among most practitioners. 

   Does it even matter anymore, now that news consumption increasingly occurs over the internet? Or, through late-night "comedians?" If the public has trouble sorting truth from falsehood with professional outlets, what chance do we have when anyone with a computer can deliver information - as he or she chooses to shape it? 

   Researchers say, in 2016, governments and political parties deployed social media to manipulate the public in 28 countries. Russia is the worst perpetrator. 

   If so, disinformation is the new normal; democracies are suffering from anonymous, junk information and propaganda. 

       Jimmy