Diversity Instead of Objectivity

Nowadays news productions pride themselves on their apparent objective outlook, while failing to recognize the inherent biases disguised in their seemingly neutral overtones. What’s more, a fear of appeared biased stops many newsrooms from taking any meaningful stands that would serve in the public’s favor. As William Greider states in his book, Who Will Tell the People,

“The suggestion that a newspaper ought to accept its own responsibility to democracy would be a radical proposition in any newsroom. Newspapers have learned to stand aloof from such questions, in order to protect their pretensions of objectivity. A newspaper that took responsibility for its own readers would assume some of the burden for what they know and understand (and what they don’t know and understand). In would undertake to reconnect them with political power and to invent forms of accountability between citizens and those in power that people could use and believe in.”

The fear of appearing biased is so strong that news people choose instead to leave issues vague and partially illuminated, much to the reader’s detriment, and society overall. Good, efficient and thorough reporting requires that one takes a stand. Personal beliefs should be tolerated as long as actual news is reported with journalistic integrity. That is to say that all the featured material and facts are true, all related parties are equally represented.
This might seem like a preposterous suggestion to make – to openly accept that human beings by nature cannot be objective and to have the news community work instead to defend values they believe in – and it is considering the current landscape of the American media.
What must happen in order for American society to benefit from a distinct viewpoint in the newsroom is a clear effort by American government and the American people to maintain a diversity of viewpoints in all news mediums. This means reestablishing old FCC regulations that restrict how many news outlets any one person or corporation can own (ie. to tell Rupert Murdoch to suck it.)
In addition, it should be recognized that news is unlike any other industry when it comes to capitalist enterprise. It is a social service above all else, and should serve the people before serving the bottom line. There should be publically sponsored news networks alongside privately funded networks. (This is discussed in further detail in the pattern, Mix Funding.)