Not that long ago, we had only three commercial networks on television, CBS, NBC and ABC. Many markets also had an unaffiliated or “independent” station and maybe a public tv station, and that was it. Mostly it was the “Big Three” of CBS, NBC and ABC. With limited competition, the money rolled in and the three network news divisions were massive compared to what we have today. And they were licensed, with the oversight by an FCC that had some teeth in it, with the legal ability to levy fines or even pull an outlet’s license.

It would appear none of that matters, because only the old guys like me watch what the “old media” traditional networks are putting on the air. The big draw for eyeballs now is YouTube, and I can’t get my head around it

With YouTube becoming the alpha dog in the race for eyeballs, the once innocuous platform has taken us to a place some of us most feared, a society of viewers watching not what they need, but what they want, thereby fulfilling their personal wants, needs and biases, with every click.

The absolutely essential element of a Journalism filter, with professional journalists vetting news and information before it is passed along, is gone, leaving us in big trouble with a huge hole in the pipeline that gives us the “news.”

All of this makes for a confused and skeptical public, some of them simply giving up on the “media” with no ability to separate out what’s real from what’s fake, an issue that is not just employed but is promoted by some inept and even underhanded politicians, who need something to hide behind, as they move from one failure to the next. And this, leaves millions of Americans having been conned into thinking real news is fake and fake news is real. But there’s another element at work, as well.

For some time, I thought young people, with whom I admittedly have only very limited contact, were acting like smart asses, that they were being dismissive, too good to be bothered with anything I had to say. But that wasn’t the case at all.

Younger folks, it appears, are living in a different reality, communicating with texts instead of with their voices, while they watch not what they need, but what they want, on all the various new platforms, none of them vetted by professional journalists. All of them subject to the darker powers of misinformation, disinformation and AI. Meaning, to me, it may be time to give serious consideration to licensing journalists

The SPJ could handle the licensing, paid for by a fee from every tv station, network and platform that wants to be a part of the new system. A key would be keeping the system of licensure as far away from government as possible. A completely independent system that would leave no doubt as to who is real and who is “fake,” doing entertainment while posing as news outlets.

You may not like the idea of licensing journalists, outlets and platforms that purport to be doing “news,” but it is a solution, and a solution is badly needed before we are all co-opted by lies, half-truths and a tidal wave of societal self-satisfaction after being snowed by a steady diet of what we want and none of what we need to make informed decisions about our lives and the direction of the country.

Before you tear your hair out complaining about my proposal, consider this: What is the alternative? To continue down the path we are now on, letting our current delivery system of bias, misinformation and AI programming dictate what we hear and watch as the country continues to be torn apart?

Big Brother, is no longer just watching, he is in your head. And you don’t even know it. Somebody’s gotta fight back.