Friday, September 9, 2011

Media Objectivity

It's been a while since i've thought any media was objective, and putting the truth to the lie has been one of the greatest things about the internet. But the notion that objectivity is possible is still prevalent, unfortunately, leading to a lot of bad writing in the major media outlets. I like how the guy from hardballtalk.com spells out the problem:
I grow very tired of reading an article about politics in which 987 people believe X to be the case and 13 loons believe Y to be the case and the reporter — in the name of objectivity –says “there is disagreement, however.”  Fine. There’s disagreement. But put it in context and, even if your story is not on the op-ed page, feel free to call a loon a loon. Or if that’s too much, at least provide facts which put lie to what those 13 loons are saying. If you fail to do that you’ve distorted the matter even more. All in the name of objectivity! Blah.
Truth.

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