Objective Journalism vs. Partisan Journalism

Having served nearly thirty years at CBS News, Mr. Goldberg had earned a reputation as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. However, when he observed his own industry, he realized the liberal media had completely missed their mission to give honest news. After years of sharing his observations and promoting more balanced reportings, Goldberg soon realized that no one listened because they believed they were doing the right thing. The liberal bias continued, therefore Bernard Goldberg decided to take the situation into his own hands and expose the distortion of the media himself. Goldberg’s breathtaking and shocking best seller book, Bias, reveals the close-mindedness of the news culture and their mission to entertain rather than share facts.

News organizations that report on stories in a fair, balanced and ethical manner are essential to the functionality of this nation. A citizen’s ability to make well-informed decisions hinges on a news organization’s ability to relay the most accurate information regarding the state of the nation, the changing condition of communities, and adjustments in the government. Journalism is no longer a one-sided conversation. Journalism is an interactive process that allows for readers and viewers to create a dialogue with journalists by utilizing mediums such as social networking sites and comment sections. Audiences have a say in what stories get reported and how news stories are presented to the masses. When news organizations fail to cover all

Theodore Dawes is a writer and reporter from Alabama, he uses examples from the frustration of the people in view of the media, and but brings a better understanding to the process that reporter and editors have to go though in creating a story. He states that objectivity has no existence in news reporting, but journalists still provide the truth that it does exist. Reporters have only so much face time to provide a segment, how can they possibly provide multiple sides of a story and not expect to get all of the facts. Editors and reporter have to make difficult decisions including, the morality of the story and what facts they can possibly leave out. Even though it seems the media is only trying to persuade and pick sides in a story, this

Media has been playing a significant role in our daily lives by developing our personalities, enriching our knowledge and providing us with different sorts of information. It has a tremendous power in framing cultural guidelines and shaping political dissertation. If the information provided to the U.S. citizens is distorted, then they cannot make informed decisions on the matters of public policy. Thus, it becomes vital to the American democracy that the news media and its institutions remain unbiased, fair and accurate. Media bias happens when a media systematically and persistently emphasize one particular point of view that is usually below the standards of professional journalism. There can be various reasons for media bias, some of

After reading Bernard Goldberg’s Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, I could recognize the medias divide and opinion when reporting the news. Growing older and more understanding of certain issues and what is going on in the world it has been easier for me to acknowledge this bias and opinion of news reporters when watching the news. Being more in the middle of the right and left wing I can see how the media inputs its views that are not objective or twists stories to make it politically correct.

The purpose of this report is to analyse journalism practices employed in newspaper reporting across different outlets and to analyse if the practice was in line with the media

The reality is that objectivity in reporting is impossible because the information is being filtrated through humans. Even if they try to be as objective and unbiased as possible they will still be making decisions regarding what to include and what not to. That states that every news outlet will be somehow bias, might be liberal or conservative, or maybe just trying to make the story more dramatic or appealing to the public. Most bias is unintentional, liberal reporters might happen to know more liberal sources or get around with mostly liberals.

Robert J. Samuelson’s factual article, “Picking Sides for the News,” is an essay that describes the different views and opinions on American news by American citizens. Samuelson claims that most Americans see people in the news business as “sloppy, biased, and self-serving.” He states that the news industry is divided by political views; Republican and conservative, and Democratic and liberal. Based on your political standpoint, you may find different news stations more supportive than others. Samuelson shows support to his viewpoint that many news companies “make news rather than just report it.”

American journalism has always played both sides of the fence for the American people. In regards to that, news media is always for the people, however for different reasons. One is to make money, and two is to provide the American people with the accurate information of national and international affairs. As a result, partisan news media has become realistically the only choice of news with the big five owning most of the corporations. The discussion amongst scholars is that partisan news makes for more of an engaged citizen, on the other hand it creates bias due to the lack of correlation of intertwining ideas. Taking into consideration both sides of the argument, one thing remains true that there is a correlation between the great divide and the big five partisan news medias.

In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.

It can be said that the mainstream American news media holds objective reporting in a high regard, and rightfully so. Such a journalistic culture finds its roots in the Fairness Doctrine, a policy implemented by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949(Boliek) in response to muckraking and irresponsible journalistic practices of prior times. The Fairness Doctrine mandated that news organizations provide contrasting views of controversial issues in an equal manner. Though the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987, and its official language removed in 2011, the effects of this policy still seem to play a significant role in the mainstream media (Boliek). It can be argued that the residual effects of this policy have mutated into a heavy emphasis on fairness and balance (in some cases, and in other cases not as much) that has made many journalists lose their focus on what objectivity actually means.

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).

Objective journalism originated in response to yellow journalism. Objective journalism is reporting facts rather than opinions and presents both sides of the partisan debate. Objective journalism became the new norm of society and ultimately eliminated most of yellow journalism. With the development of cable television and FM radio, the news began to take a more partisan role and led to the increase of party polarization, which is the further divide between Republicans and Democrats. With the rise of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, the creation of “fake news” is becoming imminent. Today, news organizations are using the tactics of yellow journalism in politics to gain the attention of the audience and provide false facts that produce a major response from the viewers. Ideas and propaganda material are able to spread faster and to a wider range of people through social media. Much of this material is “fake news” that usually discredits one of the political parties, Republicans or Democrats. With the wide spread of this negativity toward one party, the opposing party strengthens its ideals and ultimately leads to increased party polarization.

The duty of journalists is to tell the truth. Journalism means you go back to the actual facts, you look at the documents, you discover what the record is, and you report it that way. — Chomsky 2008

The belief that journalism is in decline has triggered major alarms, because society needs an informational environment that is easily available to all citizens such as newspapers. There is a large body of journalist that suggests that if television has taken over from the press as our main source of news this may limit our capacity to learn about public affairs; newspapers are believed to be far more effective than television at conveying detailed information necessary to understand complex and detailed issues. There is also widespread concern that if journalism fails as a profession it will not be able to reach large sections of the community, particularly younger or less educated readers. This may reinforce a growing gap among citizens between the information that they receive.