Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication recently released a survey of some 75 journalists titled “Beyond Objectivity.” Many of them argued that objectivity should no longer be the standard in news reporting.
“I never understood what ‘objectivity’ meant,” Prof. Leonard Downie Jr., a co-author of the report and a former executive editor of the Washington Post, wrote in a Post op-ed. “My goals for our journalism were instead accuracy, fairness, nonpartisanship, accountability and the pursuit of truth.” Much of the public would regard that as far more objective than what they read, hear and view now.
Stephen Engelberg, editor in chief of ProPublica, echoed Mr. Downie’s mystification: “I don’t know what it means.” While they may not understand objectivity, the public certainly does. A Gallup/Knight Foundation survey released in 2020 found that 68% of Americans “say they see too much bias in the reporting of news that is supposed to be objective as ‘a major problem.’ ” The Gallup poll, which questioned 20,000 Americans in all 50 states, also found “a majority of Americans currently see a ‘great deal’ (46%) or a ‘fair amount’ (37%) of political bias in news coverage”—a total of 83%. In 2021, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University surveyed 92,000 people in 46 countries. One question was “Do you trust the news media in your country?” Finland had the highest positive response, at 65%. The U.S. was dead last, at 29%.