Rural Issues: What happened to our integrity?

Many times over the years, in this very column, I have voiced my displeasure with the decay of journalistic integrity in this country.

I railed against the political agenda positioning and lack of ethics in national network news programs.

Some of you who read that might feel that I was blaming the national media for all that is wrong in this country, but I believe this to be only a part of the problem.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “supply and demand.” Overall, national news networks supply the programming that consumers demand. The media company — that may or may not be owned by a multinational corporation with its own political agenda — that produces the “news” program does a lot of research to determine what “Joe Consumer” wants.

They know approximately how many households and who in those households is watching the program. They are targeting a consumer who will purchase the insurance plan, new car, or smartphone being advertised during the program.

If we would all turn off our televisions or change the channel when the national network news programs came on, ratings would crash and some changes would have to be made.

It is bigger than decaying journalistic integrity. It is decaying integrity across the board.

Many Americans are spoiled rotten. That which a few years ago would have been labeled a behavioral problem is accepted behavior today. Narcissism, lack of sympathy and questionable morals seems to be the norm.

So many people want instant gratification. They don’t want to have to work hard to earn anything.

We might know our neighbors, but we don’t know our neighbors the way we used to. We send text messages instead of telephoning our coworkers, friends and family.

There is an undercurrent of distrust and disrespect among the citizenry that I don’t remember feeling when I was younger.

People are not only suspicious of lawmakers and others in positions of authority, they are suspicious of one another.

Stealing a dollar from the cash drawer is still stealing. A white lie is still a lie.

A volunteer first responder or fireman in a rural community who shares details of the condition of an accident victim is not only a gossipmonger; he or she is violating patient confidentiality and breaking the law.

This lack of integrity and betrayal doesn’t make anyone — even a volunteer who has saved lives — a hero. It makes them a rube with a blue light and a shameful disgrace to their community.