By Abigail Shaha
When they teach journalism in school, the poster child is usually someone like Walter Cronkite — someone who stuck to the facts and hard news, giving only shades of humanity on especially sensitive issues. Those journalists would never have imagined giving their personal opinion about the issues. Objectivity was the bread and butter of journalism; no one even flirted with the idea of tainting it.
But like every career, journalism in the classroom is different than journalism in the newsroom. Most journalists enter the field bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, clinging to their standards of objectivity. They are determined to be the people’s watchdog, but staying on that road is a constant battle. In extreme cases, some reporters are seduced by the sensational-yet-meaningless stories that sell big, or resort to fabricating quotes or entire stories, obviously compromising their journalistic standards. But most journalists struggle with a more subtle breech of journalistic objectivity.
As they create names for themselves and advance in newsrooms, some journalists take their advanced positions and followings as an excuse to make their jobs more personal, or more personalized. Their objective window on the world gets tainted not with bad news, but with their own opinions. The spotlight starts getting to them and their new position becomes an excuse to pontificate on the headlines of the day. They forget to keep the camera on the message, not the messenger. Pretty soon, news segments are followed with a few seconds or even equal time for the journalist’s opinion, crossing the line from objective messenger to media commentator.
The examples are countless: the Sean Hannity Show, “Lou Dobbs Tonight” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “Glenn Beck,” etc. Most of these news programs start with real news stories, but almost all include some form of host opinions. Most of the time, the reporters even get some tag line to live up to, like, “Lou Dobbs: Tough, Relentless, Independent,” or, “Campbell Brown: No Bias. No Bull.” Maybe if they prime the audience like that, objectivity will be assumed by the audience despite the fact reporters ignore it.
That’s how most of the news industry is today, at least in the major outlets. Broadcast news is especially susceptible, but print reporters can be just as bad. Unless you watch CNN during the low-viewing daytime hours or switch to CSPAN or the BBC, the vast majority of even news programs are shifting toward the trend of the ones listed above. It’s getting harder and harder to find straight news without the “edgy” insights of the talking head giving it to you.
Most of the journalists guilty of this practice are either blind or apathetic. Some claim they’re not hurting their objectivity because they are providing the news during their programs. During an interview on “The Late Show,” Bill O’Reilly insisted that he was a journalist while Rush Limbaugh was not because Limbaugh had too much opinion. But anyone who claims the “O’Reilly Factor” is free of O’Reilly’s personal commentary is dreaming.
Others believe they are more qualified to speak on the issues because they research them more thoroughly than most citizens who vote on them. After all, who better to comment about the Mexican border drug war than Anderson Cooper after he camped out on the border. And who better to comment on Obama’s budget than Campbell Brown, since preparation for her story involved hours of picking the numbers apart.
But those arguments miss the point. Assuming you know what’s best for the people because of some deeper knowledge is an elitist mentality, almost as elitist as claiming your competitor is straight opinion and you’re the real reporter. Neither one of those attitudes stresses the importance of balance, fairness and objectivity, and neither one is likely to produce stories with the real public interest at heart rather than ratings or outside opinions.
So public, watch out. Don’t complain the news is slanted and then subscribe to one of the personalities who’s slanting it. If you want objective, straight news, don’t support the opinionated hosts who taint it. And journalists, be even more careful. Don’t let your fan base let you forget what you are: a mirror, not a commentator. There are plenty of people ready to badger for hours about everything from endangered species to what the moon’s made of. The public doesn’t need any more talking heads. What they need are the stories, the window to what’s really happening. Don’t lose sight of that window and remember where to keep the camera pointing.
Abigail Shaha is an Issues and Ideas Editor at The Daily Universe.
Copyright Brigham Young University 5 Apr 2009
