Objectivity

Just caught a newsmedia panel in which Len Downie, the executive editor of the Washington Post, said that you can't be objective, but you can be fair, which means getting all the voices and opinions out there and into circulation.

To that, let me reply... HELL NO. 2 + 2 = 6 is not a valid opinion, no matter how many people fervently believe it to be so. Throwing all opinions into circulation just leads to "he said, she said" journalism in which no one is doing any actual reporting. It's like Steno Sue, vomiting back Bush's press releases and talking points without trying to qualify them or examine their truthfulness (or truthiness). The media's job is to filter out all the lies and bullshit in order to better inform the public, not muddle them even more.

These are the kinds of people who run the newsrooms at the major media institutions. The problem is that the left isn't as partisan as the right. Instead, the left would prefer the liberal idea of objective, fact based journalism, while the right doesn't give two shits and keeps getting wingnuttier and wingnuttier. This works against us in the fair realm of "all opinions are equally valid."

I think this idea of fairness will become increasingly irrelevant as people turn to alternative media and news consumption. If the major papers want to neglect their duties and dig their own graves, it's fine by me. We'll start looking elsewhere for nourishment.