The hypocrisy of journalists who call out bias

Often their words point to their own partisan mindset.

Journalism is too opaque and misunderstood. Chills gives a behind-the-scenes look at how dangerous investigative journalism gets made. 

---

A petition against Fox News taped to its New York headquarters in 2004 for its use of the tagline “fair and balanced.” (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Media critic

Eric Boehlert

posted a piece on his Substack last year that looked at how the press seemed determined to undermine President Biden’s economic achievements. I like it because Boehlert inherently explores how we, as journalists, shape every story. We create the framing, we choose the sources we speak to, we include the quotes we want, and we weigh how much of any point of view we should use.

This is why I argue against the concept of “objective journalism.” We can do our best — and we certainly try — to include all pertinent voices in our reporting, but that doesn’t mean we should be giving the same amount of space or weight to the words of a lunatic as we would to a non-conspiracy theorist (for example).

As journalists, we can all use what appears to be a “neutral voice,” but that doesn’t mean our implicit bias isn’t guiding our choices or even what stories we decide to cover. Still, the colleagues I’ve worked with on news and political stories over the years have successfully, for the most part, kept their opinions out of their writing. (And yes, even in my experience at the much maligned New York Times.)