I have a M.A. in Journalism and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Worked in the field. Outlets don’t want a conservative Journalist. Changed careers. I would shut down the media until standards could be set. No apologies. Ever.
Ouch.I would shut down the media until standards could be set. No apologies. Ever.
The question is whether it is possible to set standards. Objectivity is unnatural, because everyone has opinions and they think they are right. Otherwise they would be their opinions. You can try to be objective - and it’s OK to say you are trying - if in good faith you actually are. But to claim objectivity is pretty much the same thing, IMHO, as to claim wisdom - it is inherently arrogant to take that for granted.So my take is that claiming objectivity is the problem. And you don’t get off the hook merely by joining a mutual admiration society of people who will claim objectivity for you, provided you claim objectivity for them. IMHO accepting a label - “I’m a conservative, so you can take that into consideration when evaluating my viewpoint” - is an acceptance of responsibility for your perspective, and is actually the form humility takes. Joining the “No Labels” movement, or the “society of self-validating objective journalists” is arrogant.
The typical radio talk show host is openly conservative. There’s no significant niche for an openly “liberal” radio talk show for the simple reason that the niche for articulation of the “liberal” perspective is filled to overflowing by pseudo-objective journalists. Sean Hannity sometimes breaks news on his show, and he is in that sense clearly a journalist. But, being a conservative, he is forced by his opposition pseudo-objective journalists to be open about his conservatism, and is not to be considered “a journalist” by their self-aggrandizing standards.
It is their “standards” of “journalism” which have to be overturned. Only when journalism is actually open to conservatives can the opinions in the Sullivan decision be representative of reality.
Ouch.I would shut down the media until standards could be set. No apologies. Ever.
The question is whether it is possible to set standards. Objectivity is unnatural, because everyone has opinions and they think they are right. Otherwise they would be their opinions. You can try to be objective - and it’s OK to say you are trying - if in good faith you actually are. But to claim objectivity is pretty much the same thing, IMHO, as to claim wisdom - it is inherently arrogant to take that for granted.So my take is that claiming objectivity is the problem. And you don’t get off the hook merely by joining a mutual admiration society of people who will claim objectivity for you, provided you claim objectivity for them. IMHO accepting a label - “I’m a conservative, so you can take that into consideration when evaluating my viewpoint” - is an acceptance of responsibility for your perspective, and is actually the form humility takes. Joining the “No Labels” movement, or the “society of self-validating objective journalists” is arrogant.
The typical radio talk show host is openly conservative. There’s no significant niche for an openly “liberal” radio talk show for the simple reason that the niche for articulation of the “liberal” perspective is filled to overflowing by pseudo-objective journalists. Sean Hannity sometimes breaks news on his show, and he is in that sense clearly a journalist. But, being a conservative, he is forced by his opposition pseudo-objective journalists to be open about his conservatism, and is not to be considered “a journalist” by their self-aggrandizing standards.
It is their “standards” of “journalism” which have to be overturned. Only when journalism is actually open to conservatives can the opinions in the Sullivan decision be representative of reality.