Where Have All the Objective Journalists Gone: Long Time Passing

While in college, I decided to diversify studies from my two majors of Speech Communication and Sociology. I moved into Journalism. I took Journalism courses and started writing for the Portland State University's Vanguard. 

It was a challenge for this Junior who had been studying and practicing how to communicate through the act of building relationships in mind. I learned about the five W's as a framework that journalists use to structure stories and communicate key details. I learned how to write the lead, or opening paragraph, as the most important part of a news story. This gives readers the most important information in a clear, concise and interesting manner. It also establishes the voice and direction of an article. I learned to write with brevity.

One of the most important lessons as a journalist was learning how to remain objective.  I was taught that journalists should present the facts whether or not they like or agree with those facts. Objective reporting is meant to portray issues and events in a neutral and unbiased manner, regardless of the writer's opinion or personal beliefs. An objective or unbiased news source is one that that reports “what is” and leaves interpretation up to us.

I also learned that no publication or news presentation is without bias; each writer and organization has its own perspective and agenda.  Some organizations excel at maintaining objectivity in reporting, but still it's essential to diversify your sources, including non-profit and international  media; it is important to use critical thinking in order to shape your own opinions. There's no one-size-fits-all publication or media source. 

These days of polarized viewpoints and politics, we seem to have forgotten how to be objective. The Right says all media has Liberal Bias. The Left says that the Right only reads Trump Biased reports. When did journalism stop being objective?

According to Donna Halper, Former Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Lesley University, the news stopped being unbiased "in around 1770..."

Almost from day one, journalism was influenced by the views of the men who owned the newspapers or magazines. Later, journalism was influenced by advertisers, or causes, or even political parties. There were newspapers that supported slavery, and later, segregation; and newspapers that supported abolition, and later, integration and civil rights. And while there were always some dedicated reporters who challenged the people in power or championed fair treatment of the oppressed, there were also tabloids, scandal sheets, and publications that accepted whatever the people in power told them.  

Perhaps it seems that journalism is more biased today because we hear that claim a lot—usually from politicians who don’t like the way a story was reported. Sad to say, we are very polarized as a country, like we were during the Civil War era or the Vietnam War era. And perhaps we notice claims of bias more now because we live in a world with a 24/7 news cycle, where people expect instant information; it’s a world with partisan commentators, activists who use social media to promote their perspectives, and a president who constantly accuses reporters who don’t praise him of being “unfair.” However, the reality is that most journalists are trained to report the news as accurately and fairly as possible. In other words, while “objectivity” may not always be possible (it’s tough to be objective about, let’s say, Nazis), accuracy and being fair to the facts are still what the majority of today’s journalists strive for. 

Okay, so who's the least biased/most objective news source out there? According to Ad Fontes, who has studied 3600 news sources, 700 podcasts and 474 TV/video programs, the three most accurate and unbiased news sources are

1. USA Facts with 50+% reliability and left-leaning .05 bias rating 
2. WSJ: The Journal with 49% reliability and left-leaning .27 bias rating
3.  CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell with 48% reliability and left-leaning 3.3 bias rating or
   Air Force Times with 46% reliability and right-leaning 1.2 bias rating

I don't know. I was really frightened about freedom of the press when the president and EM stated they were cutting public funding to PBS because it only gave "liberal disinformation." My fear of ridding of all news sources that are not Trump News Approved (Fox News, the most watched and quoted media by the Right, holds a reliability rating of 35 and a right-leaning bias rating of 11%) is the government-control of media. This fear comes from how fascism has been spread throughout history.

But I digress. In my search for that "golden age" of objective and unbiased journalism--my search for another Walter Cronkite out there--has lead me down the road out of the idealism of journalism to the reality. So I will continue to listen to multiple sources and use critical thinking.  Then I'll know what to fight for and understand why.

And so it goes~~~
peace