When
Objectivity Dies
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 10/6/19
Glance at the front
page of this newspaper. Compare it to
the page you are now on. On the front
page you will find hard news. The
headlines indicate that factual material will follow. I believe that factual
material is what you will always find there.
On the page you are now
reading, a heading appears. It reads
“Editorials & Opinions.” I have read
the Marietta Daily Journal since August of 1971. I doubt that I have missed reading a single
issue over these 48 years. I also
believe this newspaper has remained true to the distinction between news and
opinion.
This doesn’t mean that
the MDJ’s editorials or its columnists’ opinions haven’t made anyone angry or
that they haven’t been unfair. Fair or
not is a matter of perspective. In
opinion writing, “fairness” doesn’t apply as long as one doesn’t tell lies or
misrepresent someone. It’s not the
opinion writer’s purpose to show both sides but to argue, support, and shed
light on one side.
Factual or not is a
matter of integrity. Even so, it’s
possible to get facts wrong, in which case apologies and corrections are due. At any rate, a principled journalist will
always keep news and opinion separate.
This newspaper does.
Not so with its print
counterparts around the country nor with television news. Objectivity informs; subjectivity argues a
viewpoint. Only a cursory glance will
reveal whether or not the Washington Post or the New York Times presents hard
news objectively. They don’t. The Wall
Street Journal is better, though at times it could justifiably be charged with
fashioning headlines that tilt a certain way.
It hasn’t always been
so with the New York Times. Its long
time editor, Mississippi-born Turner Catledge, was heralded as an ethical man
who sought to “do newspapering right” and to “report the facts straight and the
opinions clear.” Editor of one of the
world’s most widely known newspapers from 1951 to 1968, Catledge was never a
big shot nor too busy to visit his home state and little East Central Jr.
College in Decatur, Mississippi to talk journalism with the college newspaper
staff. Catledge was a graduate of
Mississippi State University, then known as Mississippi A&M.
Smaller newspapers
excepted, modern journalism has not followed the path of Turner Catledge. Neither has the electronic media. That’s why President Trump’s rage during his press
conference this past week was justified.
There has never been a better example of New Journalism’s excesses and
subjectivity than the way the national media has covered President Trump. Finding him entertaining during his
presidential campaign, the networks and the national newspapers gave him time
and space, never dreaming he would win the presidency. The biggest Uh-oh! in political history is
election night of 2016. The media’s
useful idiot turned out not to be an idiot after all, but a candidate who was
saying what voters wanted to hear. Since
that eventful night, the sole mission of CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and
the New York Times has been to erase their embarrassment by destroying Donald
Trump. So far none of their efforts have
worked. It’s highly unlikely that a
kerfuffle over the president’s conversation with a foreign leader will work
either.
Nationally, objective
journalism is dying. ABC’s Sam Donaldson
started it all by yelling out at and being disrespectful to a president, but
who could ever enrage the smiling, joke-cracking Ronald Reagan? Trump, though, ain’t taking it. Good for him.
Georgia Congressman
John Lewis deserves deep respect for his courageous stand as a civil rights
hero. How many different photographs of
his bloodied head have we seen? But that
heroism cannot justify Lewis’ ludicrous claim that President Trump is a threat
to our democracy. Currently the biggest
threat to our democracy is “news” organizations leading the way in refusing to
accept the results of an election.
That’s what undeveloped nations do.
Churchill once
commented, “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the
subject.” His words are an apt
description of the journalists and commentators whose arrogance and disdain are
aimed as much at Trump’s 63 million voters as at Trump himself.
Having thrown
respectable and objective journalism to the winds, the New Journalists are mean
and vengeful, but they aren’t dumb. They know that Biden is too yesterday and
that the other Democratic candidates are too far left. Their aim is to coronate Hillary Clinton who,
no doubt, is waiting in the wings.
Even Napoleon remarked,
“Three hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” But Donald Trump doesn’t fear newspapers or
cable television either. That’s why they
hate him. He has bill-boarded their
total lack of objectivity.
Roger Hines
10/2/19
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