Journalism now has, at best, a thin pretense of fairness, let alone objectivity. Journalists at all news organizations should take this time of change to review the current state of the profession and make necessary changes.
At one time journalists strived for objectivity. Then sometime in the early 80's that standard started eroding. As a substitute, new journalists were instructed to strive for fairness. Now objectivity is an absolute impossible to attain but an absolute worth striving for. Fairness, while admirable, allows for wiggle room. As that "wiggle" expanded it became easier to cut corners. Then with the expansion of local and cable news outlets which was accomplished without sufficient expansion of staff, standards for quality journalism were re-defined, and not in a good way.
Attention to detail was diverted from content to cosmetics. We are now concerned more about how Megyn Kelly looks on camera than how substantive her interviews are. Rather than taking time to train more journalists, we hire "experts" from fields we should be covering. This is especially true for politics. The main problem is that these experts are not encumbered by the ethics of journalism, Donna Brazile, anyone?
Change for the better will come only when staffs are increased, salaries are increased and standards are raised and maintained. But having said all that what ultimately has to change is education, especially in elementary school. When would be employees graduate from high school insufficently educated in history, geography, grammar, writing, and mathematics, it's not reasonable to expect these shortcomings to be fixed in college.
At one time journalists strived for objectivity. Then sometime in the early 80's that standard started eroding. As a substitute, new journalists were instructed to strive for fairness. Now objectivity is an absolute impossible to attain but an absolute worth striving for. Fairness, while admirable, allows for wiggle room. As that "wiggle" expanded it became easier to cut corners. Then with the expansion of local and cable news outlets which was accomplished without sufficient expansion of staff, standards for quality journalism were re-defined, and not in a good way.
Attention to detail was diverted from content to cosmetics. We are now concerned more about how Megyn Kelly looks on camera than how substantive her interviews are. Rather than taking time to train more journalists, we hire "experts" from fields we should be covering. This is especially true for politics. The main problem is that these experts are not encumbered by the ethics of journalism, Donna Brazile, anyone?
Change for the better will come only when staffs are increased, salaries are increased and standards are raised and maintained. But having said all that what ultimately has to change is education, especially in elementary school. When would be employees graduate from high school insufficently educated in history, geography, grammar, writing, and mathematics, it's not reasonable to expect these shortcomings to be fixed in college.
