E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One

When I think about journalism, I picture it as a mirror. At its best, it reflects the whole of society — every crack, every contradiction, every shade of truth. But somewhere along the way, the mirror cracked. Too many outlets stopped showing the full picture and instead began to tilt it toward the audience they wanted to keep.

I’ve seen it close up. I’ve taken complaints to IPSO, only to discover how weak the safeguards really are. I’ve been falsely accused by BuzzFeed of running a fake news factory, an accusation that nearly destroyed my career. And I’ve spent years fighting what I call the “proof of work” battle, pushing back against publishers who want the work of journalists without paying fairly for it. These aren’t abstract debates for me — they’re battles I’ve lived.

And this is where Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind gives us a kind of compass. He writes about the six moral foundations that guide human values: care and harm, fairness and cheating, loyalty and betrayal, authority and subversion, sanctity and degradation, liberty and oppression. Every society draws from these. Every one of us feels their pull. But too often, journalism today leans only on one or two, leaving the others in shadow.

When we lean too hard on care, stories become appeals to empathy without balance. When fairness is defined only through one ideological lens, it distorts. Loyalty to a cause can become a blind spot. Respect for authority can harden into deference, or rebellion for its own sake. Sanctity can be revered or mocked, depending on who is writing. And liberty, which should be universal, sometimes becomes a slogan in one corner and invisible in another.

Each of these foundations is powerful. But in isolation, each is incomplete. Together, they form the full palette of human values. Without them all, journalism fractures into echo chambers. Readers sense the gaps. They lose trust — not because they no longer value truth, but because they know when it’s been thinned out.

That is why we need to do better.

The Press Card is our answer. It gives privileged membership to a community built on proof of work, on shared standards, and on mutual verification. Every journalist who carries it has a byline that is theirs alone — a personal brand of editorial integrity. That byline is not just a name. It is a currency of trust. Protect it, and doors open. Undermine it with PR, spin, or clickbait, and the doors slam shut.

But here’s the deeper truth: no single journalist can embody every perspective. None of us alone can cover the whole moral spectrum. But together, as a community, we can. Each byline adds another colour to the palette. Each correct choice strengthens the whole.

Like steel forged in fire, journalism grows stronger through challenge and debate. What binds us is not uniformity but duty — duty to truth, and to the public we serve.

That is why the Press Card represents more than accreditation. It represents guardianship. It says: we belong to something larger than ourselves.

The phrase E pluribus unum — “Out of many, one” — reminds us that distinct voices, when brought together, form a stronger whole. In journalism, our strength lies not in one perspective but in the harmony of many.

Out of many, one. From one, strength.