A discussion of the current state of journalism around the world and how it impacts all of our lives with my good friend and fellow critical thinker Michael Mullan-Jensen.

Hello and welcome to The Private Citizen! You get an early episode today and there will be another one incoming later in the week. This particular episode is part of my interview series and was recorded last week. Today I’m talking to my good friend, and long time supporter of this show and my other work, Michael Mullan-Jensen. Mike has a keen interest in politics and journalism and I thought with his unique perspective he would be the ideal partner to bounce ideas off of for the topic at hand.

So what is the topic at hand? I want to talk about the current state of journalism. Not only because I’m a journalist myself, but more importantly, because I see it as a big factor behind many phenomena in our society at the moment. And it’s not a good factor, I feel. Journalism definitely can be a force for good, but it has also caused many problems that are at the root of topics of previous (and most likely future) episodes of this show. And so I feel as a root cause, it is something that warrants some reflection. This episode is a first step in that direction.

Discussing the Current State of Journalism

My discussion with Mike was prompted by earlier conversations we’ve had in private but it was again pushed to the forefront of my to-do list when I recently read Matt Taibbi’s article The American Press is Destroying Itself.

During the discussion I mentioned that people should read Terry Pratchett’s The Truth, which they definitely should. I also recommend reading up on Edward Bernays.

Feedback

Producer Urban Koistinen chimes in with an opinion on COVID-19 testing (regarding things I had said in episode 27).

While the way testing is used today is mostly useless or harmful, there is a potential for it to be helpful: Find people who have developed immunity by testing for antibodies and collect plasma from them. The plasma is then likely to be helpful for people who can’t fight the virus on their own and so it might be useful to test the sick for the virus. This is supposed to be the oldest medical use for blood transfusion.

If you also have thoughts on the topics discussed in this or previous episodes, please feel free to contact me.

Toss a Coin to Your Podcaster

I am a freelance journalist and writer, volunteering my free time because I love digging into stories and because I love podcasting. If you want to help keep The Private Citizen on the air, consider becoming one of my Patreon supporters.

You can also support the show by sending money to via PayPal, if you prefer.

This is entirely optional. This show operates under the value-for-value model, meaning I want you to give back only what you feel this show is worth to you. If that comes down to nothing, that’s OK with me, pard. But if you help out, it’s more likely that I’ll be able to keep doing this indefinitely.

Thanks and Credits

I like to credit everyone who’s helped with any aspect of this production and thus became a part of the show.

Aside from the people who have provided feedback and research and are credited as such above, I’m thankful to Raúl Cabezalí, who composed and recorded the show’s theme, a song called Acoustic Routes. I am also thankful to Bytemark, who are providing the hosting for this episode’s audio file.

But above all, I’d like to thank the following people, who have supported this episode through Patreon or PayPal and thus keep this show on the air: Niall Donegan, Michael Mullan-Jensen, Jonathan M. Hethey, Georges Walther, Dave, Rasheed Alhimianee, Butterbeans, Kai Siers, Mark Holland, Steve Hoos, Shelby Cruver, Vlad, Fadi Mansour, Jackie Plage, 1i11g, Matt Jelliman, Joe Poser, Philip Klostermann, ikn, Dirk Dede, Dave Umrysh, David Potter, Mika, Vytautas Sadauskas, RikyM, drivezero, Martin, Jonathan Edwards, Barry Williams, Silviu Vulcan and S.J.