Part of the issue is the aborted attempt to turn journalism into a profession. Professionals, by and large, carry personal liability for errors, negligence, and deliberate bad behavior that harms their clients. Journalists are supposed to serve the public interest, but they generally only have narrow personal liability for torts like defamation. Recent precedent further limits that personal liability.
Despite this, journalists in the later part of the 20th century successfully created an aura of professionalism borrowed. Cronkite, Rather, the 60 Minutes crew, etc. projected a sense of seriousness and professional care. In some instances, the newspapers really did and to some extent still do engage in fact checking and other professional activities to increase reliability. However, because all of these measures are self-enforcing, they became over time even more corrupted than they were before.
They increasingly relied on anonymous sourcing for important matters, which is inherently open to abuse (it's why the Constitution requires that a defendant be able to confront their accusers and witnesses against them). They could no longer maintain this false aura because they were repeatedly confronted by bloggers and other small creators with evidence of their unreliability.
The standard proposed solution to the problems created by powerful universal publishing technology tends to be a licensing regime of some kind as a preventative measure, or otherwise that publishing technology providers submit to close supervision by the state (as they did during the cough cough era).
I think the better way that comports better with the Constitution is to just to enforce the criminal laws and facilitate civil suits against individuals retroactively for the harms that they cause through illegal speech. There are lots of kinds of illegal speech, e.g. you cannot engage in the unauthorized practice of law, you cannot provide medical advice without a license, you cannot defame people, you cannot incite riots, you cannot procure criminal acts, you cannot defraud, you cannot infringe on copyright, and so on and so forth. More lawsuits and prosecutions for illegal speech -- a reactive way of addressing the issues -- is less harmful and better comports with the Constitution than proactive means such as requiring that every social media user have a license that can be revoked or that the platforms submit to close management by the Article II government.
> Part of the issue is the aborted attempt to turn journalism into a profession.
The term "unfunded mandate" come to mind. Journalists should aspire to a higher standard (just as software developers should), but nobody's incentivizing it. Get the scoop, get the clicks, publish first and make it an exclusive. Traditional media is getting squeezed from all angles, who's got time to fact check, who's got the budget for deep research? It's hard to blame the poor journalist, who's just trying to survive in a landscape where anyone with a social media account is given the same consideration as an authority.
We've just been through a week of Americans on Twitter getting shocked at Brits on Twitter because there's some, very minimal, legal action being taken against people who incited riots through false statements on social media. I think you need to be much clearer about what this actually means. Especially as there has been very little prosecution of Jan 6 "inciters" (as opposed to people who were physically there committing crimes while being filmed)
> There are lots of kinds of illegal speech, e.g. you cannot engage in the unauthorized practice of law, you cannot provide medical advice without a license, you cannot defame people, you cannot incite riots, you cannot procure criminal acts, you cannot defraud, you cannot infringe on copyright, and so on and so forth.
Is this sentence unauthorized practice of law?
edit: It's a rhetorical question. If I had power over policing and the justice system, and I disagreed with you, and it were actually illegal to give legal or medical advice to people without a license (which it is not), it would absolutely be unauthorized practice of law and the spreading of misinformation. I might also claim that you're doing it to help Russia weaken a potential future law that would force journalists to be licensed. I will claim this with no evidence, but I will claim it everywhere, through dozens of different, soon-to-be-licensed, mouths. The rumor will be used as grounds to investigate you.
What caused you to believe that the unlicensed practice of medicine and law are legal? Are you drawing a distinction between advice and information, perhaps?
Despite this, journalists in the later part of the 20th century successfully created an aura of professionalism borrowed. Cronkite, Rather, the 60 Minutes crew, etc. projected a sense of seriousness and professional care. In some instances, the newspapers really did and to some extent still do engage in fact checking and other professional activities to increase reliability. However, because all of these measures are self-enforcing, they became over time even more corrupted than they were before.
They increasingly relied on anonymous sourcing for important matters, which is inherently open to abuse (it's why the Constitution requires that a defendant be able to confront their accusers and witnesses against them). They could no longer maintain this false aura because they were repeatedly confronted by bloggers and other small creators with evidence of their unreliability.
The standard proposed solution to the problems created by powerful universal publishing technology tends to be a licensing regime of some kind as a preventative measure, or otherwise that publishing technology providers submit to close supervision by the state (as they did during the cough cough era).
I think the better way that comports better with the Constitution is to just to enforce the criminal laws and facilitate civil suits against individuals retroactively for the harms that they cause through illegal speech. There are lots of kinds of illegal speech, e.g. you cannot engage in the unauthorized practice of law, you cannot provide medical advice without a license, you cannot defame people, you cannot incite riots, you cannot procure criminal acts, you cannot defraud, you cannot infringe on copyright, and so on and so forth. More lawsuits and prosecutions for illegal speech -- a reactive way of addressing the issues -- is less harmful and better comports with the Constitution than proactive means such as requiring that every social media user have a license that can be revoked or that the platforms submit to close management by the Article II government.