2008 Woodie Awards
Objectivity impossible for journalists to achieve
Benjamin Sobieck
Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: Opinions
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Objectivity.
What a word. If there even is such a thing, it is at par with sasquatch, JFK conspiracies and where the beef went. It is more of something to hypothesize and skepticize, rather than accept as dogma.
Despite this, objectivity is the grounds for which my entire journalistic career has been, and will be, based on. In the pursuit of it, it has become apparent this is a fruitless effort.
I say that because there is not a person in the world who is not biased in some way, myself included.
I do not mean to discredit the work I have done here at the University Chronicle, or other newspapers. I have done my job with the best level of objectivity humanly possible.
But the cold hard truth is that if I was asked to put my hand upon the Bible and swear I am a 100 percent objective journalist, I could not. And neither could the rest of the world, journalist or otherwise.
I am OK with that, and I hope readers are, too. The lack of total objectivity in people is a fact of life, as engrained in humanity as the cycle of life and death.
This simple fact may sound like I am incriminating myself. I assure the sources I have dealt with can rest easy, as I am not saying I have ever printed misleading information or presented someone in a false light.
What I am saying is I cannot soundly say I am free of bias every time I sit down at a keyboard to write news stories. Even punctuation, verb choice or the first sentence of a story can be subject to bias interpretation.
I am sure there are some people who more than agree with me. "Of course the media is biased, they are always catering to the ______s," a person might say.
Whoever says that needs to examine where their own priorities stand. It is impossible for a person to not present favor for one group, ideology or other faction of society.
Is it therefore not hypocritical to accuse someone of bias when you are biased yourself?
This fact might be ignored due to society being constantly bombarded by hypocrisy presented as objective fact. The most prevalent example of this is in politicians.
What a word. If there even is such a thing, it is at par with sasquatch, JFK conspiracies and where the beef went. It is more of something to hypothesize and skepticize, rather than accept as dogma.
Despite this, objectivity is the grounds for which my entire journalistic career has been, and will be, based on. In the pursuit of it, it has become apparent this is a fruitless effort.
I say that because there is not a person in the world who is not biased in some way, myself included.
I do not mean to discredit the work I have done here at the University Chronicle, or other newspapers. I have done my job with the best level of objectivity humanly possible.
But the cold hard truth is that if I was asked to put my hand upon the Bible and swear I am a 100 percent objective journalist, I could not. And neither could the rest of the world, journalist or otherwise.
I am OK with that, and I hope readers are, too. The lack of total objectivity in people is a fact of life, as engrained in humanity as the cycle of life and death.
This simple fact may sound like I am incriminating myself. I assure the sources I have dealt with can rest easy, as I am not saying I have ever printed misleading information or presented someone in a false light.
What I am saying is I cannot soundly say I am free of bias every time I sit down at a keyboard to write news stories. Even punctuation, verb choice or the first sentence of a story can be subject to bias interpretation.
I am sure there are some people who more than agree with me. "Of course the media is biased, they are always catering to the ______s," a person might say.
Whoever says that needs to examine where their own priorities stand. It is impossible for a person to not present favor for one group, ideology or other faction of society.
Is it therefore not hypocritical to accuse someone of bias when you are biased yourself?
This fact might be ignored due to society being constantly bombarded by hypocrisy presented as objective fact. The most prevalent example of this is in politicians.