The headlines just keep on coming. The latest: President Donald Trump uses blatantly wrong information in a threat to shut down the US government if Congress won’t fund his legendary and unnecessary wall against Mexico. Meanwhile, we learn the Kremlin put out phony stories for a year in preparation for a latest attack on the Ukraine. I could spend lots of “ink” listing one after the other example of misinformation, disinformation and “alternative facts” that these days drive both public policy and public opinion.
I’m a product of what was arguably the golden age of American journalism, “raised” in the business to believe that it’s not just a job, but a calling – offering me the privilege to cover stories like the one from this photo taken in 1987 – the return of Salvadoran refugees to their homes during the wars in Central America.
I started my career not long after Watergate, when real facts and “getting it right” were as important as “getting it first,” and when accuracy, reliability and credibility were inviolable core values.
I’ve been thinking a lot about these values lately in the era of fake news and too much information, for three reasons:
• Personally, because I’ve been horrified by the growing impact of false information on national and local decisions around the world.
• Professionally, because I worry that our profession and democracy have been degraded and diminished by manipulated information and “alternative facts” presented as reliable, verified, journalistically-based truth.
• Entrepreneurially, because when I conceived VitalBriefing seven years ago, I wanted to ensure that businesses and organisations could get curated, business-critical information based on journalistic values of accuracy, timeliness and relevance on the competition, regulations, technology and developments that guide their decisions.
To Be Completely Honest…
I also had an ulterior motive: As literally tens of thousands of my colleagues in newspapers and magazines around the world are losing their jobs, I hoped that in my small way, we could match some of those highly qualified journalists of all ages with the needs of our clients – that we could help our clients make better choices based on unbiased information rather than rely on social media echo chambers or partisan press outlets.
Which brings me to today. As our business grows – confirming our idea that businesses and governments would welcome high-value, reliable, timely and accurate information – we’re recruiting experienced writers and editors to add to our growing global corps of experts. If that’s you (or someone you know), please contact jobs@vitalbriefing.com
In this world of digital natives, we have created an unusual “newsroom.” Our journalists literally work from around the world. They’re multilingual and knowledgeable about the industries they cover for our clients. In many cases, they’re over 50 years old and have decades of experience at some of the the most respected general and industry-specific media, publications you would recognize for their accuracy and commitment to the facts. But age is no barrier where expertise, talent and enthusiasm are concerned.
What We Offer
We offer steady work and reasonable compensation, a humane environment that conforms to an independent lifestyle, be it in Luxembourg, Bulgaria, France, Spain, Greece, England, the United States, Singapore…and beyond.
In a fast-paced company that melds cutting-edge search technology with irreplaceable journalistic skills, our international corps of expert journalists is fully focused on providing accurate, timely and reliable business intelligence.
Whether it’s producing filtered, fact-checked and concise summaries of key industry developments about our clients’ industries and their competitors or longer, industry-specific stories and thought leadership articles, I like to think of VitalBriefing as one of the antidotes to fake news – wrapped in a viable and sustainable business model.
So again, consider this post as a job ad. If this sounds like you or a friend, we’d love to know: jobs@vitalbriefing.com.
