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I just finished classes at San Francisco State University for my BA in journalism. A bittersweet achievement from one vantage, since my degree makes me employable for an industry in the midst of a monumental sea change. Against my natural inclination, however, I am keeping an optimistic outlook and so polished off one of my final research papers as an undergraduate with an eerie realization.

The press (meaning ME!) is the only career or job in all of history that was so important to the highest aspirations of mankind it was directly included in the Bill of Rights. Need to brush up? A helpful reminder since not everyone is nerd enough to keep, in his living room, a copy of the original Bill of Rights “begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday, the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.”

Article the third….. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

On a side-note, perhaps instead of the Pledge of Allegiance, children should recite the original ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution every morning they attend school so the words are indelibly burned into our brains as a culture and when governments infringe on them we make a conscious decision to permit the transgression. In effect, supplant our apathy.

But to the point: The founders of this nation thought the work of the press was so essential to democracy, to the very nature of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they included a specific protection for the industry at the heart of the nation’s soul.

I think this while I glance over the eighteenth story about Tiger Wood’s alleged infidelities, in the Business section no less, and reports about the Copenhagen Climate Summit offer exactly zero specific details about proposed agreements. Twenty minutes perusing two papers, and I was still looking for “news” between the photographs and advertisements.

Which is when I stumbled across my favorite opinion article of 2009 in the San Francisco Chronicle. David Sirota, columnist and radio news host in Denver, Colo., admonished media and public reaction to failed campaign promises made by President Obama. According to Sirota, it has become a truism that what is promised by the candidate can’t be reasonably expected from the elected official. The media, he says, treats disappointment at such behavior as naive and child-like so the populace feels comfortable laughing at the simpletons who expect follow-through on promises.

Sirota claims such cultural myths break down the fundamental structures of our representative government. It is viewed as “worldly” and “experienced” to accept false promises from candidates. Conversely, if you took the promises at face value, well… “Oh, come on grow up!” With Obama, who promised hope and change, the string of disappointments has abandoned gays in the military, people dependent on prescription drugs, opponents of the Patriot Act and civil rights advocates.

This odd acceptance of the unacceptable, justifying with an over-simplistic “because that’s just the way it is” has permeated much of our culture recently. When Wall Street firms were provided with more H1N1 vaccine than some New York City medical centers, at the height of tension about the “Pandemic That Ate the Headlines!” and insufficient doses for those most endangered by the flu, there was no mainstream media coverage of the story. The story broke on the back pages of a couple smaller papers, none based in NYC. A couple Web sites gave the story serious attention, but no groups picked up the banner of injustice. A week later, in an ironic twist, The Wall Street Journal ran the story, reassuring investors Wall Street was prepared for the disease, so while babies and elderly might die their stocks would be just fine.

Three weeks after the travesty was posted to the Internet,  major media ran the story and there was no public outcry for misappropriated funds, cures or morals just a collective shrug. Like, “well it’s the evil stock brokers who run everything; what’d you expect?”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg regularly hosts parties where all the power money can buy is present for dinner and entertainment. According to New York Magazine, Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman, and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publishers of New York’s three daily newspapers were present when the mayor was announcing his plan to run for mayor again. Interestingly, before his own term limit was approaching, Bloomberg was quoted saying defying the terms voted into law by NYC voters was not acceptable.

Bloomberg, with one of the largest election coffers in the entire nation, easily defeated City Comptroller William Thompson with a barrage of advertising, a slur campaign and political influence. When the dust settled, once again the general consensus was “well he owns the city, so what did you expect?” with a rueful shrug at the ignorance implicit in a question like How Can That Happen?

Lying is not okay. In your two-year-old, your drunken relative or your elected representative. The inevitable pull of rationalization and relativism is like the ocean waves shifting the sand and eroding the features of the world. Real news reporting is the bedrock, holding fast to one simple goal: “Seek Truth and Report It”. Truth, with a capital “T” because the verifiable, vetted and transparent information sought and reported by The Press honored by the founders of these United States is an absolute heart in the middle of so much darkness.

Be it Tweeted, YouTubed or printed in an antiquated newspaper, I will pressure my news providers and my (ever-so-nearly-tangible) future employers. With my tiny little piece of paper flapping in the breeze, and a college debt looming darkly on the horizon, I  step out into the abyss to pursue that guiding light for all of us. With luck, we may all be illuminated.

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