Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa

Take a bow, journalism… The Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, founder of the Rappler website, and Dmitri Muratov, editor of Moscow’s Novaya Gazeta, is an “extraordinary tribute to journalism,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

“It is a powerful message at a time when democracies are being undermined by the spread of fake news and hate speech,” he said.

RWB and the #HoldTheLine coalition launched a solidarity campaign for Ressa in July 2020 and created a website https://holdthelineformariaressa.com that features hundreds of videos recorded by infuential figures that will play until the Philippine government drops all charges against her and Rappler.

America doesn’t buy it. Gallup reports that a mere 36 percent of Americans trust the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.

That’s the second lowest level of media trust since the divisive 2016 Trump/Clinton presidential campaign when only 32 percent of America trusted the media.

Trust in the media rebounded to 45 percent in 2017 as Democrats rallied around journalism to counter Trump’s "enemy of the people” charge and cries of fake news. Trust began to decline in 2018.

America’s trust in media ranged from 68 percent to 72 percent between 1972 and 1976.

Another headache for Facebook. The National Press Club’s Press Freedom Team will host a news conference on Oct. 12 with Andy Parker, father of slain WDBJ-TV (Roanoke, VA) reporter Alison Parker to talk about the Federal Trade Commission complaint filed on his behalf against Facebook.

The complaint questions Facebook’s role in allowing a moment-of-death video of Alison Parker’s Aug. 26, 2015 murder to be posted and re-posted on the platform.

Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward were shot and killed while conducting a live interview.

The Parker family did not want to the video of the murder to be posted on Facebook or any other platform. The complaint says Facebook’s response to requests to remove the video have not been adequate.

Andy Parker, a member of the NPC, became a gun control advocate following the death of his daughter.

He has testifed before Congress, contributed to the Washington Post, USA Today and Huffington Post and is the author of “For Alison: The Murder of a Young Journalist and Her Father’s Fight for Gun Safety.”