Journalism is NOT a Profession

Acarpenter studies wood — how to bend, treat, and use it. It’s a craft rooted in a deep understanding of working wood. Does a journalist truly study information, its effects on society, and how to responsibly disseminate it?

A true profession should be judged by the weight of its mistakes — the consequences that follow a wrong decision.

Consequences of Mistake

When a doctor makes a mistake, someone may die. When a soldier or police officer gets it wrong, someone can die — or end up in prison. If a teacher is wrong, students fail. If an accountant messes up, a company loses money. If an economist miscalculates, an entire country can collapse. When a chef gets it wrong, people get food poisoning, end up in the hospital, or, at best, are just highly unsatisfied.

If a prostitute makes a mistake, the consequences can be severe: pregnancy, disease, violence, even death. But when a journalist get it wrong? Often, nothing happens. No penalty, no consequence, no accountability. At worst, there’s a half-hearted correction buried in fine print — more often, they just move on to the next headline like nothing happened.

Journalism has had its moments — exposing scandals, uncovering corruption. And yes, in some cases, the consequence has been severe: journalists kidnapped, killed, maimed, or silenced. But those are outliers — usually the work of rogue governments, not the standard experience of the profession.

Conclusion

There’s no scientific method, no objective framework that governs journalism the way it does medicine, law, or engineering, et cetera. So we ought to ask ourselves, can a society live without journalism?

Maybe not. But can it survive the kind of journalism that’s untethered from truth, unburdened by responsibility, and immune to the consequences of being wrong?