As rising misinformation online presents new dangers for our nation’s democracy and our world – an environment Axios recently called “a perfect misinformation storm” – broadcast journalism’s commitment to fact-based reporting has not wavered.

NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt recently spoke about these issues and the power of trusted journalism at the Media Institute’s “Free Speech America” Gala. He said,

Years into tech’s experiment to hold-up crowd-sourced social media content as a more “democratized” form of news gathering, it is safe to say that it can never replace what journalists do, which is to provide the facts that calm the storms.

Journalists in this room and across the world put themselves in harm’s way to cover the news, hold governments to account, shine a light on private actors’ wrongdoing, and seek justice. This has never been a more important task.

Whether it is local or national – broadcast, print, or digital – your outlets are the bedrock of our democracy, and the public must be able to rely on us.

If we aren’t working every day to push back on these challenges, no one is. We all need to up our game and be relentless to ensure that future generations can access and easily identify factual news and information, the very information that that keeps us safe and helps us make informed decisions.

Read his complete remarks here.