News must have proper context

I was amused by Bruce Parker's letter of Jan. 9. His comment that "When every print or television news outlet EXCEPT Fox is 'fake news' or 'Left-wing media,' perhaps it is the critics who are misguided." It reflects the condition of too many people today. News is supposed to communicate facts in a proper context. It is not supposed to forward or advocate a point of view, that is editorializing or worse.

The New York Times used to be edited by Abe Rosenthal, and Ben Bradlee used to edit The Washington Post. Those journalists generally avoided using unnamed sources that couldn't be independently corroborated. Does anybody think Dean Baquet or Martin Baron have that level of integrity?

Too many of today's news publications simply don't follow previously established standards any more. When MSNBC and CNN air Michael Avenatti instead of primary election results or other news of the day, they are forwarding anti-Trump views instead of news.

This they did dozens of times. It's more than fair to question cable news standards when they cite the information in the Steele Dossier as credible. The truth is that nobody, when put under oath, would defend the document and chunks of it have since been demonstrated to be patently false.

Yet, these and many other stories were repeated by several print and cable news media. A wise saying is "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." We would do well to be skeptical about what we read because repetition is closer to indoctrination than it is to truth.

David A. Paulson

Arlington Heights