The joke being that megacorp news is already just propaganda and objectivity in news has long been dead, but there is a movement to make it even worse by indoctrinating the young graduates joining the field to be open advocates instead of maintaining the illusion of any objectivity. And of course “bothsidesism” is racist, so that’s out. And that’s why the quoted Gallup poll showed 21% trusted newspapers, and 16% trusted television news, and only 12% trusted politicians. So I’m expecting those pathetic numbers to go even lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWe have been discussing the rise of advocacy journalism<\/a>\u00a0and the rejection of objectivity in journalism schools.\u00a0Writers<\/a>,\u00a0editors<\/a>,\u00a0commentators<\/a>, and\u00a0academics<\/a>\u00a0have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including\u00a0President-elect Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0key advisers<\/a>. This movement includes\u00a0academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism<\/a>\u00a0in favor of open advocacy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\nPolls show trust in the media at an all-time low<\/a> with less than 20 percent of citizens trusting television or print media. Yet, reporters and academics continue to destroy the core principles that sustain journalism and ultimately the role of a free press in our society. Notably, writers who have been repeatedly charged with false or misleading columns are some of the greatest advocates for dropping objectivity in journalism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the leaders of media companies are joining this self-destructive movement. They are not speaking of columnists or cable hosts who routinely share opinions. They are speaking of actual journalists, the people who are relied upon to report the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saying that \u201cObjectivity has got to go\u201d is, of course, liberating. You can dispense with the necessities of neutrality and balance. You can cater to your \u201cbase\u201d like columnists and opinion writers. Sharing the opposing view is now dismissed as \u201cbothsidesism.\u201d Done. No need to give credence to opposing views. It is a familiar reality<\/a> for those of us in higher education, which has been increasingly intolerant of opposing or dissenting views.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n