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What is the 'mission' of a news organization? There are facts, e.g. a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was discovered with lots of unfavorable emails, an unruly
by johnp314 4y ago
What is the 'mission' of a news organization? There are facts, e.g. a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was discovered with lots of unfavorable emails, an unruly group of people broke into the US Capitol on Jan 6 and wreaked all sorts of havoc, George Floyd died while in police custody, Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine, etc, etc. But quickly after reporting these 'facts' nuance enters the discussion, why, what does it mean, what is the impact, who cause it, etc, etc. Why should we expect reporters to not view and report the nuance through their own personal filters? A reporter also lives in the country and/or community in which he/she is reporting and has their own biases and beliefs and, yes, political leanings. Why should they then report a nuance that might reflect poorly on the things they personally believe to be correct or their personal world view?
It's silly to compare money to mission of a news organization (or any other entity for that matter). It's like asking what influences a human being more, food to air? You need both. For a news organization to have impact it needs money. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't even NPR solicit money on a regular basis - don't they have to cater to the supplier of that money to some extent to continue their service? I hear their fund raising and they often read comments from contributors which all more or less say "you give me what I want". So their money comes from those with whom their style and nuance of reporting resonates and it's reasonable to assume that NPR reporting then continues in that direction.