[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Many (all too many) Freepers would agree with this Walter Cronkite quote:

Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.

You may say, "What can be wrong with that?" and the answer is nothing - nothing but everything.

Objective journalism would be very different from some opinion columns - but, in principle, perhaps not all opinion columns. Maybe there is someone who writes objective opinion columns.

But it depends on your definition of "objective." If objectivity is the same thing as wisdom - and is there any such thing as "unwise objectivity?" - then a claim of objectivity made by a journalist (or by all journalists for each other in a mutual admiration society) is a claim of wisdom, and a claim of wisdom is (to put it charitably) notoriously unreliable. The very term "sophist," from which we get the term "sophistry," comes from the Greek and means "wise man." The term "philosopher," meaning "lover of wisdom," was developed to counter the pitfalls of sophistry coming from people who claimed wisdom.

So the point is that objectivity requires the conscious discounting of any self interested reasons you may want to believe what you are thinking, writing, or speaking. Thus, an opinion writer might say that "I have Apple stock and I use an Apple computer," before stating a favorable opinion of anything Apple. That would be at least a gesture in the direction of objectivity. On the flip side, it would also be a gesture in the direction of objectivity if that same person said that same thing, and noted that he could be speaking out of a desire to avoid suspicion of being a "fanboy" if he said something negative about Apple.

But would anyone care to attempt to find any instance of an "objective journalist" giving his hearers/readers any disclaimer which would help his audience to see any possible bias in the "objective journalist's" report? Since that is a rhetorical question to which the answer clearly is "no," "objective journalist" is an oxymoron.

Any claim of objectivity is a denial of the possibility of one's own subjectivity - and is therefore proof of the very thing it seeks to deny.

[DJ MacWoW]

I expect all the facts and not just cherry picked ones. I expect ALL the news and not just cherry picked news stories. That’s my gripe with the media.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[wardaddy]

nice essay but no one has offered anything to bolster the assumption that Cronkite wanted us to lose in Vietnam

i don’t know to be honest

“sophistry”...love that word

[PGalt]

Thansk for the ping/posts...especially IncPen’s classic; thanks for the post. BTTT!

[T Lady]

'Any claim of objectivity is a denial of the possibility of one's own subjectivity - and is therefore proof of the very thing it seeks to deny.'

Brilliant analysis...and a hard, bitter truth that I learned over 35 years later that was embedded in the folksy 'news' provided by Mr. Cronkite and many of his colleagues at CBS, ABC, and NBC.

While purporting to 'report' events these people inserted their own personal views into the mix and made Americans believe it was 'authentic', 'credible', and 'truth'. And with a seemingly grandfatherly persona, Walter Cronkite pulled this ruse off with ease, thus earning him the status as 'The Most Trusted Person in News'.

With all due respect to his family in mourning, what a crock.