Re: Dec. 24 letter to the editor.
Letter-writer Allan Lindeman, in his response to a about the value of the press, states, “Newspapers have an ability to check facts that social media does not.”
I would like to take Lindeman’s comment just a bit further. In my view, it is that newspapers, and all the mainstream media, have an obligation — it is part of their social compact — to fact-check. But social media has the same ability, they only lack the obligation or, too often, even the desire to be factual. Some on social media spread false news for fun and profit, whereas others do so out of laziness or a desire to present only views compatible or supportive of their own opinions.
Yes, we owe a debt to our journalists, called the Fourth Estate for great and significant reasons that support our freedom. Letap not diminish their role by such trite terms as “lame-stream media” or forget the numbers of journalists, from the dawn of our republic, who risked and sacrificed their lives to simply tell the truth.
Bob Priddy, Westminster
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