it still seems to me Sowell is correct.
He is not arguing that journalists are in fact “objective” all the time... otherwise he wouldn’t have used Rush Limbaugh, who is open about his biases, as an example of a journalist. He is simply arguing that journalists should strive to represent the facts as they know them honestly and to the best of their ability. Were Rush to turn on a dime and represent McCain as being a conservative on, say, energy issues, Rush would be doing the opposite.
I disagree.Certainly Sowell - a hero of mine, but atypically unfocussed on this issue - does not think that journalists who claim to be objective, actually are. But he bites for the proposition that they should be objective, and that IMHO is a fallacy. The fundamental of the problem, IMHO, is that to claim objectivity is to claim wisdom - is there such a thing as "unwise objectivity?" Thus, what we see in the "objective journalist" is a sophist, and nothing more ("soph" is the Greek root for "wisdom." The "philosophical" school of thought reacted to the sophists, who claimed wisdom and used the simple logic,
You can see that this line of argument is a recipe for heat, not light.
- You disagree with me.
- I am wise.
- You are not wise, you don't even claim to be wise.
- Therfore I am right and you are wrong.
"Philo" is the Greek root for "brotherly love" and "soph" is as noted the root for "wisdom." Thus the "philosopher" is someone who does not claim unique wisdom, but who loves wisdom - accepts that wisdom exists, and is open to facts and logic. The response of the philosopher to the sophist is to say, "All very well to proclaim your own virtue - but what about the facts of the case before us?"
Journalists have undoubted propaganda power, and they exploit it; they claim objectivity for themselves and they proclaim the virtue ("liberal" and "progressive") of those who agree with them and the vice ("conservative" or "right wing") of those who do not. That is, they behave as sophists.
Conservative commentators, being at the disadvantage in propaganda power, are in no position to behave that way. Being at a power disadvantage, they have little recourse except to restrict themselves to facts and logic. Conservative commentators are in that sense philosophers.
In calling conservative commentators "journalists," Sowell errs. There is an objective difference between the two.
Amen! Sowell taught me many things but his misplaced faith in a fantastic notion of "objective journalism" seems completely wrong.