Monday, September 15, 2008

Truth and Objectivity in Journalism

Many of you may have watched Charlie Gibson interview Sarah Palin the other night. Many more of you heard about it in the succeeding days. Gibson was praised for being a tough journalist, asking hard pressing questions about Palin's experience and questioning her qualifications to be VP.

Back in June, Gibson also interviewed Barack Obama. Today the American Thinker just released a comparison of questions Gibson asked Obama and Palin in each interview. I highly encourage you to read that article.

This is disturbing to me not because I really like Sarah Palin as a candidate, but because of what Journalism has become. Fair and balanced isn't fair and balanced. "News worthy" is a marketing term and most mainstream journalists seem to have conceded their biases and it's obvious. It's important to add that my political beliefs have nothing to do with this view. I am often just as bothered by Fox News as I am CNN.

Journalists have a duty to report, ask questions and inform the public, but all the more they seem to be more engaged with the politic, which calls into question their integrity. Gibson, who is a noteworthy journalist, really lowered the standard of quality journalism this time.

1 comment:

JasonP said...

My favorite part was the "Bush Doctrine" exchange.

Here's a great article about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457.html

Sarah Palin doesn't know what it is? Clearly, Charlie Gibson doesn't know what it is, either. But, he sure acted pretty smug when explaining it to her.

John Stewart said it best. "George Bush doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is."