a visit to the Newseum is a reminder that what is passing is not only a business but also a profession -- the journalistic tradition of nonpartisan objectivity. Journalists, God knows, didn't always live up to that tradition. But they generally accepted it, and felt shamed when their biases or inaccuracies were exposed. The profession had rules about facts and sources and editors who enforced standards.Not in my lifetime.
The author pines for a better, more romantic era in which journalists were more ethical, more concerned for the well being of their country, and less partisan. Of course, the above quote from the article quite tellingly reveals the fact that in the old media model, there was only the one view point, from the left, and no one disputed it. I'll take today's model over yesterday's, thank you very much."As Walter Cronkite prospered in the old environment," says Starr, "Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann thrive in the new one.
Yes, as an "objective" reporter Cronkite was always the lefty that he openly was as a retired journalist cum commentator.The codes of "journalistic ethics," and the claims of journalistic objectivity, were not always part of the press. Before the Civil War era, newspapers were not dailies, and they didn't have the Associated Press newswire to feed the maw of a daily press. And the newspapers were consequently much more about the opinion of their printers than about "hard news" - in the gathering of which the printer didn't have a huge advantage over the owner of the general store. So the newspaper was much more open about its opinions, much like the editorial page of today's paper is.
With the advent of the AP, newspapers had not only the motive but - precisely because they were "associated" - the opportunity to claim objectivity without fear of being ridiculed by competitors. The AP homogenized the newspaper industry - making it the less objective for its ability to claim to be more so.
Thanks for the ping/post; list; thread; comments.
The anti-truth propagandists are on the run. Life is too short to be deceived anymore by discredited liars and enablers of discredited liars.
BTTT