3 ms·

> Should journalists be allowed to have opinions? If so, when and where — and how — should they be allowed to express them? How about they start with "in my op

> Should journalists be allowed to have opinions? If so, when and where — and how — should they be allowed to express them? How about they start with "in my opinion" or some other obvious marker, and everything else should be assumed to be fact? > Why can’t we just admit that journalists are human? Those of us with a bit of experience already know that journalists are "human" and that these transgressions are made, and will read the same story from a bunch of other outlets to compare. Of course the general public is not forgiving when it's your damn job to overcome the human impulse to be partial. Do we forgive judges for doing the same? I hope not. You've been trained to cope with and recognize your personal biases, and to at least give a best attempt to separate them out and maybe put them to the side. What's even more frustrating is the "I'm only human" defense when you're not so sure that the manipulation was non-deliberate, to incite an increase in readership. I think there is a reasonable due diligence that can be easily identified as done or not done. If you haven't, then you don't get the benefit of the doubt.

slantyyz 14y ago
> How about they start with "in my opinion" or some other obvious marker, and everything else should be assumed to be fact? Sadly, I think the problem is that journalists have the same dilemmas as teachers. If you're a teacher, you're generally considered to be a teacher whether you're at work or not, so you have to uphold some arbitrary standard for public behavior 24 hours a day (i.e., make sure no photos of you being drunk while on vacation show up on something like Facebook). A "journalist" who isn't perceived as being "objective" 24 hours a day (impossible) will rightly or wrongly be criticized as having their opinions bias the work they produce.

slantyyz 14y ago

> How about they start with "in my opinion" or some other obvious marker, and everything else should be assumed to be fact? Sadly, I think the problem is that journalists have the same dilemmas as teachers. If you're a teacher, you're generally considered to be a teacher whether you're at work or not, so you have to uphold some arbitrary standard for public behavior 24 hours a day (i.e., make sure no photos of you being drunk while on vacation show up on something like Facebook). A "journalist" who isn't perceived as being "objective" 24 hours a day (impossible) will rightly or wrongly be criticized as having their opinions bias the work they produce.