Wow (Destiny)

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, 16:00 (3443 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Personally, I think it's braver to not take sides as a journalist, thus giving me, the reader, the ability to discern my own opinions on the facts that you provide. That doesn't mean "fair and balanced" to me, though, just "removed and observational" as opposed to "judgmental".

I do not get an opinion on global warming. I am not a climate scientist. It is up to the people who ARE to tell us it is happening and man made, and up to the journalists to deliver that message. It would be a disaster if every story about global warming had to have both sides weighed. Nobody needs the oil companys' side of the story. Not all sides are equal, and not all viewpoints are equal.

I'm definitely not saying you can't tell me a scientist's opinion on their work and you certainly don't have to pair it with some opposing voice every single time. I'm not asking for all sides weighed - I even said that I don't need "fair and balanced" just a few lines right up there^^! I said "removed and observational".

I'm saying I don't want the journalist telling me their opinion and distorting their story and the context of people's words to fit their goals. I don't need the equivalent of some nutjob's Facebook post where he links some facts and then goes off on his opinion. That tells me nothing. That leads to shitty comments. And that's what so much of journalism is now. The editorial made war on the rest of the newspaper and won (or maybe it was always this bad).

Write an article about something that happened. Research. State facts, quotes from experts, etc. Leave the conclusions to me.

Opinions are easy to come by. It takes a lot more courage, wisdom, and tenacity for an individual to keep them as far away from the real reporting as you can.

You understand that merely by selection what story to report, you are already biased? What you choose to observe is itself already a bias.

Yes, that is a bias, and humans are likely incapable of true unbiased reporting - that's why, if you read my wording, I wish for journalists to try and keep their biases as best they can from their work.

I started college off as a journalism major and departed from it when I came to see how little 'reporting' was happening and how much more 'opinions' were being spilled forth from self-righteous journalists.

I welcome our future robot reporters that just state facts and actually quote people with due context.