4 ms·

Isn’t advocacy that pushes an ideology more or less what “journalism” means? At least Reason is open about its ideology.

autoexec 2y ago
Journalism is often used as a means to advocate for an ideology, but that's certainly not the definition of the practice. Accuracy, fairness, and avoiding bias are ideals that make for much better journalism, which is why it's a shame that so much of what we actually get was written and publicized by people who don't worry very much about any of those things. That said, if someone wants to promote an ideology then reporting on events related to what concerns them in order to inform their supporters or gain new ones seems like a very good idea.
- kristopolous 2y ago
  The classic example is when cable news has on "retired generals" that advocate for war and when you look them up on linkedin they have current jobs like "Distinguished Fellow at Lockheed Martin Corporation". There's so many of these "what the fuck man?" moments you have with cable news you forget there's professionals out there than don't do that kind of shit.
Ferret7446 2y ago
Is that a sarcastic observation of the state of news media in recent years? Because that is not at all what journalism means. Journalism is about reporting the truth as objectively as possible, and there used to be a journalist "creed" of sorts, much like doctors have. NYT and other trusted publications built up that trust by (mostly) upholding such principles in the past, and have lost a lot of that trust by violating them.
- rayiner 2y ago
  I’m not being sarcastic. There is a changing norm within the field of journalism itself, and researchers are openly advocating abandoning objectivity as a creed. https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/04/objectivity-in-journalism-is-a-tricky-concept-what-could-replace-it/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/04/objectivity-in-journalism-... “To find out, we read every article mentioning the word from 2020 to 2022 in three publications where journalists talk to each other: Columbia Journalism Review, Nieman Journalism Lab, and Poynter. We coded each of these 195 articles on a five-point scale from ‘very negative’ to ‘very positive,’ and found that when American journalists speak about objectivity, they are three times more likely to speak negatively of it than positively (our count is 111 to 38).”

autoexec 2y ago

Journalism is often used as a means to advocate for an ideology, but that's certainly not the definition of the practice. Accuracy, fairness, and avoiding bias are ideals that make for much better journalism, which is why it's a shame that so much of what we actually get was written and publicized by people who don't worry very much about any of those things. That said, if someone wants to promote an ideology then reporting on events related to what concerns them in order to inform their supporters or gain new ones seems like a very good idea.

kristopolous 2y ago
The classic example is when cable news has on "retired generals" that advocate for war and when you look them up on linkedin they have current jobs like "Distinguished Fellow at Lockheed Martin Corporation". There's so many of these "what the fuck man?" moments you have with cable news you forget there's professionals out there than don't do that kind of shit.

Ferret7446 2y ago

Is that a sarcastic observation of the state of news media in recent years? Because that is not at all what journalism means. Journalism is about reporting the truth as objectively as possible, and there used to be a journalist "creed" of sorts, much like doctors have. NYT and other trusted publications built up that trust by (mostly) upholding such principles in the past, and have lost a lot of that trust by violating them.

rayiner 2y ago
I’m not being sarcastic. There is a changing norm within the field of journalism itself, and researchers are openly advocating abandoning objectivity as a creed. https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/04/objectivity-in-journalism-is-a-tricky-concept-what-could-replace-it/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/04/objectivity-in-journalism-... “To find out, we read every article mentioning the word from 2020 to 2022 in three publications where journalists talk to each other: Columbia Journalism Review, Nieman Journalism Lab, and Poynter. We coded each of these 195 articles on a five-point scale from ‘very negative’ to ‘very positive,’ and found that when American journalists speak about objectivity, they are three times more likely to speak negatively of it than positively (our count is 111 to 38).”