Prometheus 6

Objectivity: It’s Time to Say Goodbye
‘As a standard to separate news from nonsense and a guide to ethical reporting, objectivity is about as reliable as judging character by the firmness of a handshake.’
By John H. McManus American journalism has long embraced an impossible standard—objectivity

Beyond being unachievable, it’s undesirable because it rejects biases that are necessary if news is to be useful in a democracy—biases for the common good, for brevity, for making what’s important interesting. Objectivity has also hobbled journalism, substituting accuracy—often the transcription of official quotes—for the more difficult goal of truth. If that weren’t enough, neither journalists nor the public can agree on what it means. The resulting confusion sows mistrust.

When journalists are losing their jobs by the thousands and major newspapers are closing, it may seem that a discussion of objectivity has the urgency of deck chair arrangements on the Titanic. But when better to rethink the core principle of so essential a democratic institution as journalism than during a technological revolution that is ushering in new providers to fill the vacuum left by the departing professionals? Our new “journalists” range from concerned citizens, covert advertisers and press agents, Jon Stewart and Matt Drudge, to swarms of Flickring shutterbugs, Twittering texters, and YouTube vloggers.

As a standard to separate news from nonsense and a guide to ethical reporting, objectivity is about as reliable as judging character by the firmness of a handshake. So I propose we junk objectivity in favor of a more accurate, honest and demanding standard—empiricism—the scientific method of inquiry based on careful observation from multiple perspectives and logic that Walter Lippmann proposed for journalism nearly a century ago.