Just the facts, please

Jan. 14, 2010

Dear Leslie,

When you and I began our newspaper careers, partisan journalism was an oxymoron. The idea that a journalist can promulgate a point of view, much as someone in public relations does, is more accepted now.

In the latest issue of The Atlantic, Princeton professor Paul Starr makes a case for partisan media, the media that is selling best now that the profusion of cable, talk radio and Internet media have diffused the public's attention. Walter Cronkite is dead, and when was the last time anyone invoked the New York Times' reporting or opinion?

Partisanship puts passion in democracy, Starr says, pointing to the resurgent voter turnouts in 2004 and 2008. As polarizing as they are, partisan media have made people care about issues and candidates again, he argues. He does call for those who consume partisan media to hold them to the same professional standards the American press developed over the last century.

"Journalism needs passion, too," he writes, "though the passion should be for the truth."

Some say they trust a media source more when they know the information is being spun to the right or to the left. This point of view accepts that everyone in the news business spins the news anyway and reasons that partisan journalists are just more upfront about it. The panelists on Fox News shows can barely restrain a chortle when reporting some ill that has befallen the nation now that Barack Obama and the Democrats are in power. MSNBC is only less partisan by degrees on the left.

Partisan journalists are certainly partisan, but are they journalists? Do they let the facts dictate the story? A journalist does. Pure objectivity is impossible, but do we reject an ideal because it is unobtainable? Then why seek peace?

Most of the people I worked with in 30 years of newspapering tried to be fair and balanced in their reporting. Theoretically, giving people a fair and balanced news report encourages them to think for themselves. Fox's "fair and balanced" motto is like Newspeak, the fictional language in George Orwell's "1984." In Newspeak, words no longer mean what they once meant because the ability to think critically has been repressed.

Cigarette ads once heralded Lucky Strike's toasting process as a means of removing "dangerous irritants that cause throat irritation and coughing." Worried about that cough? Have a Lucky.

Partisanship has become a high-stakes sport in which rival teams refuse to concede any points to their opponents and exploit any weakness. Partisan journalism shrinks our brains. Partisan sportswriters root for their team, not for truth.

Here is the first definition of partisan -- the noun -- in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause, or person; especially: one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance.

Blind, prejudiced and unreasoning allegiance to anything other than truth ought not be the cause of journalism.

Truth presented as news is not to be sweetened or pickled in opinion, according to the customer's taste. It is best served raw.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is a former reporter for the Southeast Missourian.