Stanford Journalism Professor Rejects Objectivity In Journalism JONATHAN TURLEY
For four years, I have written about the alarming loss of neutrality and objectivity in journalism a trend that is reflected by many polls showing that the majority of the public no longer trusts the media for fair and honest reporting. While I have regularly criticized President Donald Trump, I have also objected to unrelentingly biased reporting as well as embarrassingly soft coverage of former Vice President Joe Biden. Now, Stanford Communications Professor Emeritus Ted Glasser has publicly called for an end of objectivity in journalism as too constraining for reporters in seeking social justice.
In an interview with The Stanford Daily, Glasser insisted that journalism needed to free itself from this notion of objectivity to develop a sense of social justice. He rejected the notion that the journalism is based on objectivity and said that he views journalists as activists because journalism at its best and indeed history at its best is all about morality. Thus, Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.
As my old judge used to say, everybody has their biases. The point is, you have to try [to be objective]. If a journalist is not trying to be objective, he or she is just lying to try to reach his or her favored conclusion. Then you not only can’t trust them. You should avoid reading them, for fear of being deceived.