On The View yesterday, Keith Olbermann provided a brief moment of thought-provoking insight into journalistic objectivity, which I hitherto had not considered.
“I don’t think by eight o’clock at night, people don’t know what has happened during the day. A lot of us, in doing the news or news programming, go to bed every night thinking, ‘And please, when I wake up, let it be 1973 again – [viewers] are really relying on us for the information.’ By the time I get to the office, the people watching me know more about the news than I do.”
It goes without saying that there is good journalism and bad journalism. I’ve always thought that journalistic objectivity falls under the former, so it’s a rude shock to realise how much news reporting has evolved and the ways in which journalists have to give the extra something. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and while having one isn’t wrong, nobody likes to be challenged – I cannot imagine deliberately subjecting myself to attack, especially in such a public space. I’m not particularly pig-headed and I welcome criticism, but to reconcile partiality with journalism when I’ve tried not to impose my standpoints on anyone… I’m going to be a fish out of water, literally floundering and struggling to breathe.
Just when I thought I could breeze through my career on the sole premise of broadcasting the news and letting people decide on which side they want to be… Now, I’m presented with this tedious job description of having to form and promulgate my thoughts on current issues.
