“We can check our facts, tell the truth, and hold the line without pretending that there is no ethical basis to the work that we do.”
Even though I’m a former journalist, I always thought the idea of objectivity was a bit of a fantasy story journalists liked to tell themselves. You can be fair, you can be accurate, but can anyone ever really be 100% objective about anything?
Radio journalist Lewis Wallace argues that they can’t in this post where he explains that objectivity is dead.
He shares five thoughts about the state of objectivity in journalism including that neutrality isn’t real, that journalists should fight back, and that journalists need a strong sense of purpose in order to tell stories well.