Gov. Inslee to Gonzaga Students: Journalism More Important than Ever for American Democracy

Friday, February 3, 2017

By Peter Tormey
SPOKANE, Wash. – Gov. Jay Inslee told Gonzaga University journalism students on Friday that the increasingly blurred lines between fact and fiction in American public discourse threatens our democracy, underscoring the crucial importance of quality journalism.

“There’s never been a time in our nation’s history where journalism and journalism schools are more important,” Inslee told students and faculty in a class taught by Lecturer Tracy Simmons. “Never in our lifetime, my lifetime certainly, has the profession of journalism been more pivotal, more important and more threatened frankly because of the economics of the media today.”

Speaking as part of a panel to help students learn more about covering divisive and culturally complex issues, Inslee called the freedoms of speech and religion two central tenets of American democracy.

“I have seen the degradation of the common set of common facts, which are the foundation for a legitimate debate in American society, and that is very much at risk right now,” the Democrat said. “Because of what is happening in the media and the internet and everywhere else, we are no longer sharing a common set of facts.”

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