Objectivity is probably better defined here as a sincere effort to be, rather than a state of mind. It requires genuine and dispassionate inquisition of and challenges to assertions.
One problem is that far too many journalists are too damn stupid to know what questions to ask.
A few weeks ago I heard Cuomo’s press conference where he stated flatly that the state had 14,000 ventilators in storage, and that he needed 40,000, and that only 900 were in use. Nobody asked him about this for 3 days - until the 3rd day a ‘journalist’ said “there are reports that the state has 14,000 ventilators in storage what can you say about that”.
3 DAYS! And it wasn’t ‘reports’ that stated it. He stated it himself. And it took longer to challenge him on why he claimed he would need 40,000 when only 900 were in use and 14,000 were in storage. To be fair, he did explain why - he said the models indicated they would need 40,000 which we now know turned out to be wrong. Not only that, something around 80% of people on ventilators die - an indication that ventilators are not helpful at all, and possibly even harmful. But few challenge this assumption. Instead they are digging for evidence that HQC doesn’t work. And to be fair, it probably doesn’t work when you give it to people already on ventilators. Too late.
Anything for a click should be the new motto for journalists. Sensational headlines. Saw a headline recently that read “Laura Ingraham Bashes Trump”, and not a single word in the story about the headline at all.
Precisely. A serious effort at objectivity must begin, not with the assumption that you are objective, but with the contrary, and counterintuitive, assumption that you are not objective. Assuming that you are objective, then testing to see if you are, will always result in an (almost inevitably false) positive result. Therefore the individual journalist within the “objective journalism” cartel is not actually trying to be objective. What his actual objective is, and must be, is consensus. Falling outside the consensus of the cartel, and staying there, is the recipe for ejection from the cartel. That is the way to get called “not a journalist, not objective.” By all members of the cartel.One problem is that far too many journalists are too damn stupid to know what questions to ask.The upshot is that, in the context of journalism, the meaning of “objective” is inverted from “not limited in POV” to limited to being simpatico with the cartel. Precisely the opposite of what a dictionary might say. The behavior of the cartel towards other political labels is similar - “liberal” or “progressive” also mean "simpatico with the cartel” rather than “favoring liberty” or “believing in progress of, by, and for society.” Both of which are values promoted by the Constitution. And neither of which are promoted by the cartel. Other than in the advertisements, of course . . .
“Conservative” is also redefined by the cartel from “opposing gratuitous changes to the way the Constitution is understood and implemented" to, “opposing the cartel's consensus."
A few weeks ago I heard Cuomo’s press conference where he stated flatly that the state had 14,000 ventilators in storage, and that he needed 40,000, and that only 900 were in use. Nobody asked him about this for 3 days - until the 3rd day a ‘journalist’ said “there are reports that the state has 14,000 ventilators in storage what can you say about that”.
Stupidity has nothing to do with it. What the “objective journalists” all know is that Cuomo is a “liberal” - and that persistently challenging the behavior of a “liberal” will get you read out of the consensus of “objective journalists.” ”Stupidity,” from that POV, is expressing any interest at all,ever, in those 14,000 ventilators.