A lot of us first amendment people come from a journalism background & while we all know that objectivity, like truth, is not a goal you can fully reach, giving up on objectivity leads you into a form of journalism that NO ONE should trust. Some on the right & left do this, & it’s a disaster for a democracy, but as far as the partisans are concerned, it’s somehow justified. It’s bad politics & it’s even worse epistemology.
A lot of us first amendment people come from a journalism background & while we all know that objectivity, like truth, is not a goal you can fully reach, giving up on objectivity leads you into a form of journalism that NO ONE should trust. Some on the right & left do this, & it’s a disaster for a democracy, but as far as the partisans are concerned, it’s somehow justified. It’s bad politics & it’s even worse epistemology.
@glukianoff She's using the word truth as a stand in for opinion. There are many opinions, not truths.
@glukianoff Today's news media organizations too often behave like PR agencies. The ethos tells them to ignore inconvenient facts. And if they can't be ignored, massage them. This is not news reporting. It's corrosive to society at large. And the attitude isn't limited to NPR.
@glukianoff people aren't kidding when they say she's titiana mcgrath in the flesh
I interpret this more charitably. Truth itself is often hijacked as a weapon of partisan politics. There are many claims made on both sides of the political divide that are true, and thus become touchstones that give political movements their legitimacy. Access to factual information is loads better than it was even 20 or 30 years ago. But has it been good for our political process? Not really. Our democracy arguably ran more smoothly when we had access to limited information, had more specialized political goals (rural people worried about rural issues, teachers worried about education issues, etc.) that could be logrolled into political coalitions, and citizens weren't expected to have an opinion about every single issue.
@glukianoff The problem is that humans didn’t evolve to see truth – but to survive. Thus, we view truth & reality through our respective tribal lenses, distorted by cognitive biases, such that we can find the “truth” that we want to maintain tribal loyalties. Tribalism trumps truth.
@glukianoff @feelsdesperate Objectivity is a practice. Very similar to mindfulness in that you are always falling out of it. But you can always become better at it, and it’s worth it to make the effort.