<p><strong>To the editor:</strong></p>
<p>In response to your article "Journalists work for you," article printed in the July 4 paper:</p>
<p>In this column, your paper talks of the Maryland newspaper shooting. All will agree this was a horrible crime. The opinion piece in the paper goes on going from this to a person wearing a shirt at a rally with a phrase on it about a journalist at a Trump rally. All will also agree that there has been several changes in the news media, both political parties and Washington D.C. as well as the average individual’s perception of these groups of people.</p>
<p>The opinion piece then goes on to talk about the millions of people turning to social media to get their news.</p>
<p>It also states in this article about how social media and other agencies are not fact-based, are based on assumptions and that people are idiots and believe what they want to believe.</p>
<p>The atmosphere in America has become an increasingly hateful one and is gradually becoming worse and if it is not dealt with by all, it is going to result in violence. Journalists and their corresponding agencies used to be upheld by all of the honest, unbiased, fact-based, all truth, no lies places to view what was going on in the world daily. Today it is not so, the media has become all that this articles lists, half truths, biased reporting, false reporting, a hatred that is shown by numerous reporting agencies.</p>
<p>All one has to do to verify this is turn your TV on to CNN or MSNBC and you’ll see biased, hateful, false reporting going way beyond the realm or normality.</p>
<p>The opinion piece talks about journalists being "the watchdog of the government," and how they are "trained" to spot falsehoods in the government,. It also states that if journalism disappears no one will report such things as crime, business, health and the corruption of our government.</p>
<p>What good is being done by journalists when they have to distort the truth and go way out of their way to change the facts of what is honestly reported to them.</p>
<p>It’s a real shame that all have to result to falsehoods, etc., when it only takes the same amount of time to be truthful and respectful about things. While hatred runs rampant, there are still journalists who stick to their values and beliefs and hold these and honesty to the highest standards.</p>
<p>These few individuals are to be commended for following their moral beliefs.</p>
<p>It’s so sad that government and all connected with it have for years become more and more dishonest. They have no concern about the average individuals they swore to protect and represent. All they are concerned about is the fact of robbing the average individual and lining the pockets for financial gains to better themselves personally.</p>
<p>I’ll say that for such groups of people of who are supposed to be watching out for people’s rights at every turn are failing at every turn. Our governments as well as the media have come to the point of distrust. It’s a sorry day in America’s history that hatred has become as it has.</p>
<p><p style="text-align: right"><strong>Michael Burdine</strong></p>
<p><p style="text-align: right"><strong>Franklin</strong></p>
