{"id":1707,"date":"2010-02-17T13:40:42","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T18:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/02\/17\/no-such-thing-as-objective-news-reporting\/"},"modified":"2010-02-17T13:40:42","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T18:40:42","slug":"no-such-thing-as-objective-news-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/02\/17\/no-such-thing-as-objective-news-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"No Such Thing as Objective News Reporting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know nothing about either of these journals, the online \u201cCreative Loafing\u201d or the Atlanta Progressive News<\/em>. But here\u2019s an odd interpretation of reporting<\/a>.  APN<\/em> fired a reporter because he tried to report \u201cobjectively,\u201d at least that\u2019s what his former employer said.  <\/p>\n

\n

He held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News. It just wasn\u2019t the right fit.<\/p>\n

\u2026We believe there is no such thing as objective news. Typically, mainstream media presents itself as objective but is actually skewed towards promoting the corporate agenda of the ultra-wealthy.<\/p>\n

APN, on the other hand, does not pretend to be objective. We believe that our news coverage is fair and that our progressive principles are fair. We aim when possible to give voice to all sides, but aim to provide something different than what is already provided by corporate sources.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

APN\u2019s statement is interesting and not without some merit.  In most stories, there are a lot of facts you could include but can\u2019t because of space.  What you include and exclude therefore means a story is not all-encompassing.  But does that mean there is no objectivity?  Reporting has become stenography at many mainstream media organizations.  They report both sides of an issue, even if one side is so far out of the mainstream as to be inconsequential, at least from a scientific standpoint.  Climate change, for example. The overwhelming number of climatologists believe the earth is warming due to man\u2019s emissions.  But because the doubters cry loud enough and accuse the MSM of bias, The climate change deniers gets reported as if there is serious doubt.  Also, blatantly hypocritical positions are ignored; for example, the Congressional Republicans\u2019 stance toward stimulus funding.  Rachel Maddow, on the MSNBC (mostly) liberal network, is one of the few journalists reporting the hypocrisy. <\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object> <\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Hypocrisy would seem to be something voters would want to know about.  It\u2019s objective\u2014and important–information.  APN, <\/em>it being a progressive newspaper, might report this hypocrisy, but would ignoring Democratic hypocrisy be objective?  Hardly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know nothing about either of these journals, the online \u201cCreative Loafing\u201d or the Atlanta Progressive News. But here\u2019s an odd interpretation of reporting.  APN fired a reporter because he tried to report \u201cobjectively,\u201d at least that\u2019s what his former employer said.  He held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[135],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}