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January 24, 2005
More on objectivity...
Chris Hedges demonstrates the damage that objectivity as stance (see also disinterest) does to the practice of journalism:
Balance and objectivity have become code words to propagate the insidious and cynical moral disengagement that is destroying American journalism. This moral disengagement gives equal time, and sometimes more than equal time, to those who spread falsehoods and distort information. It tacitly sanctions the dissemination of lies. It absolves us from making moral choice. It obscures and often shuts out the truth.
Hedges is not talking about objectivity as process. The target of his ire is objectivity as stance plus a third use of "objective" that I have not dealt with very much here, i.e. objectivity as a synonym for "fairness." Using the term this way further confuses an already terribly confused debate. (via Sisyphean Musings)
Posted by acline at January 24, 2005 1:19 PM | | Spotlight