Journalism is currently being devalued. Trying to attain the truth, understanding how best we can shine light in the dark crevices of society, seems second to the generation and maintenance of advertisement revenue and clicks.

The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the arch-capitalist behind Amazon. Their motto “democracy dies in darkness” still heralds the website even as private ownership to their feudal lord generates endless conflicts of interest and easily curtails radical critique.

The New York Post, when talking about the most recent school shooting emblazoned their front page with “transgender killer” playing into the hands of pundits who have been pushing to demonize the LGBTQ+ community in the past year, specifically fearmongering about the inherent danger they believe a transgender person poses to society.

Journalism and media, in the wrong hands, becomes a dangerous tool of the establishment to silence dissent and maintain the status quo. Some journalists have transitioned from defenders of the working class, the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the needy, and now instead focus most of their efforts on glamorizing the rich, the owners of our world.

Without Upton Sinclair, the FDA might have never come to fruition. Millions would be poisoned by unsafe food because of the businessmen who kept the industry standards cheap and exploitable. Without his critique, OSHA might never have come to pass. These standards prevent thousands upon thousands of deaths every year, and for this Sinclair was venerated as a standard amongst journalists.

Hunter S. Thompson spent months at a time chronicling the illicit dealings and the brazenly callous ideology of the burgeoning Nixon administration in his book, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.” Thompson was an oddball, an outcast. He wrote about the impossibility of the American Dream and the deception that citizens faced from the politicians temping them with its alluring, impossible reality.

We need, now more than ever, people who will speak truth to power. If we turn a blind eye, if we choose to write about what only allows us to be comfortable and complacent, we will miss the point of our profession. Now is not the time to be comfortable as so many Americans become unable to attain comfortability in any form. Now is the time to pick up our crosses and put ourselves on the line, for truth and for justice.