The Patriot Post® · Leftmedia Defends Abandoning Objectivity

It has become increasingly obvious that truth is a commodity members of the Leftmedia don’t value very much if at all. Instead, emotionally compelling narratives used to deceive readers into believing a lie are a much more highly prized asset. Sharing accurate information with the goal of informing readers was once the standard of good journalism; that is now increasingly dismissed as antiquated. Indeed, the goal of objectivity in reporting is deemed problematic for apparently allowing for the continuing of “oppressive” social structures. These days, “journalists” are coming right out and saying that telling the truth is a problem because it may stand in the way of “progressive” change.

Back in the summer of 2016, not long after Donald Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, The New York Times floated the notion that objectivity in journalism is actually a bad thing. The article, written by Jim Rutenberg, argued that these were dangerous times that could yield a Russian-compromised president sitting in the highest office in the land with unfettered access to America’s nuclear arsenal. Therefore, giving Americans the straight news with objectivity and balance was merely enabling a monster to win the presidency.

Many other scribes and talkingheads began openly arguing the same thing.

It was all nonsense, especially given the ensuing history — the loudly touted Russia-collusion conspiracy was a hoax seeded by Hillary Clinton and jumped upon by the deep state’s effort to sabotage a duly elected president who threatened their political agenda.

After all these lies finally came to light, one might have assumed those pushing against objectivity in journalism would have had to eat crow, but they didn’t. In fact, all the Leftmedia activists have done is double down.

The Washington Post’s former executive editor, Leonard Downie Jr., who is currently a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, asserts that newsrooms need to move beyond objectivity. Downie ridiculously claims that journalists can eschew objectivity and still build trust.

“Increasingly,” he opines, “reporters, editors and media critics argue that the concept of journalistic objectivity is a distortion of reality. They point out that the standard was dictated over decades by male editors in predominantly White newsrooms and reinforced their own view of the world. They believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading ‘bothsidesism’ in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects. And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.”

In other words, the racist patriarchy furthered oppression of leftist victim groups, and therefore objectivity is bad — especially, he argues, at a time when we face threats to “the very survival of our democracy.” He asserts that “the concept of objectivity has prevented truly accurate reporting,” and then quotes Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor in chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the crux of his argument: “Objectivity has got to go.”

The one positive from this is that at least these activist “journalists” are increasingly willing to admit they are biased in their reporting, a reality that they have long denied.

Tell a lie long enough, and not only will people believe it, but you’ll turn it into the new “truth.” This is not journalism; it is peddling propaganda-based activism as journalism. This kind of thinking is why trust in the news media is nearly nonexistent, and for good reason. Yet Downie argues that openly abandoning objectivity in favor of activism will “forge a stronger connection between journalists and the public.”

Evidently, Leftmedia journalists want to share the same degree of the public’s trust as politicians.

If Leftmedia journalists embrace what Downie is preaching, then it will only result in further alienating the American public’s trust. The inherent nature of truth is that it is not subjective. Try as one might, truth cannot be bent or twisted; those are properties characteristic of deceitfulness and lying. And Americans have become very tired of that lying.