I beg you, don’t steal any more

Zvonko Davidovic

Angela had ninety different suits, for each and every occasion. Zaev rode a motorcycle to Prespa to feast on gjomoleze. Don’t speak English anymore, I beg you, said Ganka to Zaev. The housewife is happy and satisfied while making her favorite food. These are just some of the headlines I read on news websites this morning. It would be ridiculous if it weren’t happening in our country, at the very moment when the country is facing serious tests of the overall political and social life.

Since declaring independence, to this day, journalism has suffered many falls and has faced many political and business powers that hardly managed to resist, or basically failed to resist. Shutting down the A1 TV and several high quality newspapers and the huge offer of high quality journalists on the market has ruined the already low cost of their labor and brought them into the position they are still in to this day. The possibility for just about anyone to create a website and have unqualified people working for them contributed to further deterioration of the already fragile state of journalism. Mechanically taking over news from one webiste to another, copying from Facebook or posts from Instagram in lack of investigative journalism created the so-called “cut-and-paste journalism”. The lack of democratic principles and the political power of the parties combined with the subliminalization of some of the owners of the media outlets have also created the so-called “cheering journalism”. The kitsch and the neglect of moral values caused by the malfunctioning of the legal system allow the creation and placement of fake and untrue news and information, making our country highly ranked on the lists of countries that are susceptible to fake news.

Unfortunately, these days fewer and fewer people believe in information that are published by the media outlets and choose to consume them less and less. The once written word and the rustling of the newspaper with morning coffee are replaced by the sounds of mobile phones. Unverified, made-up, unimportant and incomplete news are flooding the citizens every morning and follow them at every step, bombarding them with all its vigor and lies, making the people stupid with its emptiness. Today, it is very rare to read a research article, or watch a show that offers checked information without the journalist’s suggestions, leaving readers to come their own conclusion. With the rapid development of technology and technology, the time of getting the information has been cut down to zero, without the ability to check the information or the source. The so-called editorial offices made out of two people, which is the most common case especially in news websites, does not offer any opportunity to check the information, and their inadequate education level enables them to deal only with cut-and-paste journalism.

My respect to the few journalists who hold on to their reputation and resume, and give some hope and light in this darkness of quasi journalism. But this was not always the situation in journalism, some of the older generations can still recall. We were pleased to read the newspapers in which there were small masterpieces of the written word and we admired the author’s intellect and wisdom. Newspapers were always cautious of their content and tried to offer something on each and every topic for the youngest to the oldest reader, therefore the newspaper contained serious political assessments and comments, events of everyday life with a clear moral message, a section for the youngest readers, caricatures and various news of sports and culture. We have to mention Osten, Mlad Borec, Kolibri, Utrinski vesnik, Shpic, Vest, but also Politikin Zabavnik, Nin, Ilustrovana Politika and many other newspapers at the time available to readers. Today’s selection of just four newspapers does not satisfy or advance the journalistic profession, nor does it satisfy the readership. It is not surprising that the number of readers in our country is barely 7,000 active readers, and that even the publishing houses are troubled by the sale of books.

The once famous Pecko or the jokes of Momo Kapor are now replaced by half-literate articles about the size and virtue of some small-town governor who did not do anything in during his term, other than ordering that article. Serious political comments or research articles about certain social anomalies or problems have been replaced by the unnecessary and funny cheering articles on Angela’s suits, Zaev’s tie, Mickoski’s shirt. The virtues of individuals and their accomplishments with which the whole society was proud are now replaced by the twisted and moral ruin of individuals who are portrayed as successful businessmen. The readers’ morning smile is now replaced by the concerns of bloodshed and violence, which are the first information they receive while sipping their morning coffee.

Political or business centers of power have hijacked journalism, said a journalist not so long ago, arguing that politicians and businessmen are abusing journalism for their own personal needs. Political elites are the biggest winners because manipulation, spins, building a political climate, an ambience are in favor of those who are fighting for power, and all the others are losers, the journalist concluded.

In such a social climate and ambience in which the bullies, the uncapable, the incompetent, the flatterers and the moral waste abuse the media to spin, manipulate and conceal their crimes and misdeeds, helped by the copy-paste quasi journalists that can hardly be called journalists, it is almost impossible for the normal reader to distinguish the truth from the lies.

Instead of investigating and revealing the criminal process of privatization of the former social capital from which several individuals are now called businessmen, the dictatorial rule and the huge plunder of state capital during the regime of Gruevski, the robbery and crime for the construction of the Skopje 2014 project, instead writing about the incompetence and disability of a major part of the mayors, both current and former, about the problems in healthcare and education, about social problems and inter-ethnic divisions, journalists are wasting their time on Angela Merkel’s suits, the panties of who knows who, the pants of someone completely irrelevant.

As long as the situation in journalism continues like this, anyone will be able to write nonsense, spin and make up, everyone can order articles, anyone will be able to create fake political climate as a trial balloon, as one would say, to investigate or direct the public opinion, anyone will be able to manipulate and create fake news.

As long as this is the situation in the society and journalism, it will be much more important to say “don’t speak English anymore, I beg you” instead “don’t steal any more, I beg you”.