Just finished reading this article from one of my favourite authors. Thought others here might find it interesting and perhaps worth a bit of discussion. Quoting the introduction and conclusion...
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February 14, 2023
By Patrick Lawrence / Original to ScheerPost
Look, it is one thing for reporters and line editors to abandon the fundamental principle of objectivity as they hurl their hatchets at those who provoke their prejudices—Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, this, that or the other governor or senator, this, that, or the other dissident. It is greatly, entirely another for the retired coots now posing as the profession’s wise men to elevate these derelictions to the principle of there-are-no-principles.
My word. How far down the crater of corruption are those running American media’s newsrooms going to cascade? Land sakes alive, as my great aunt Louise used to exclaim.
In a recent column I mentioned The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman for her farcically unbalanced coverage of Trump during his 2017–2021 presidency. This is a reporter who saw fit to ridicule Trump’s preference for hamburgers and ice cream while covering a foreign visit during which a state dinner featured haute cuisine. It is over-the-top juvenile, but I cite Haberman as merely exemplary of the prevalent aesthetic in mainstream American media, an aesthetic of self-indulgent childishness and irresponsibility.
[snip]
To stand for objectivity is to stand for something very important to a thriving public space, a verdant village green. It is part of what makes debate—discourse altogether—possible. To stand against it is nothing more than an argument in disguise for one-sideism, and that—know your history—leads to places only the worst among us would favor.
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February 14, 2023
By Patrick Lawrence / Original to ScheerPost
Look, it is one thing for reporters and line editors to abandon the fundamental principle of objectivity as they hurl their hatchets at those who provoke their prejudices—Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, this, that or the other governor or senator, this, that, or the other dissident. It is greatly, entirely another for the retired coots now posing as the profession’s wise men to elevate these derelictions to the principle of there-are-no-principles.
My word. How far down the crater of corruption are those running American media’s newsrooms going to cascade? Land sakes alive, as my great aunt Louise used to exclaim.
In a recent column I mentioned The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman for her farcically unbalanced coverage of Trump during his 2017–2021 presidency. This is a reporter who saw fit to ridicule Trump’s preference for hamburgers and ice cream while covering a foreign visit during which a state dinner featured haute cuisine. It is over-the-top juvenile, but I cite Haberman as merely exemplary of the prevalent aesthetic in mainstream American media, an aesthetic of self-indulgent childishness and irresponsibility.
[snip]
To stand for objectivity is to stand for something very important to a thriving public space, a verdant village green. It is part of what makes debate—discourse altogether—possible. To stand against it is nothing more than an argument in disguise for one-sideism, and that—know your history—leads to places only the worst among us would favor.
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