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In reply to the discussion: Is Glenn Greenwald the Future of News? - Bill Keller/NYT [View all]Uncle Joe
(58,108 posts)38. Who do you believe damaged ACORN the worst, Brietbart or the "non-subjective" corporate media;
which was all but silent with their "non-subjectivity" allowing Brietbart's propaganda to have the room to itself?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_brietbart
He owned the news aggregation site, Breitbart.com, and five other websites: Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace. He played key roles in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, and the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy.
The pretense of journalistic non-subjectivity is a deceit against the reader, whether I agree with that journalist's opinion or not.
Knowledge is power and knowing from what ideological spectrum that journalist is coming from because he/she is upfront and honest about it awakens the reader to the material's authenticity.
The key points as Greenwald lists in one of his letters and restates in later letters as being
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/opinion/a-conversation-in-lieu-of-a-column.html?ref=opinion&_r=2&
Worst of all, this model rests on a false conceit. Human beings are not objectivity-driven machines. We all intrinsically perceive and process the world through subjective prisms. What is the value in pretending otherwise?
The relevant distinction is not between journalists who have opinions and those who do not, because the latter category is mythical. The relevant distinction is between journalists who honestly disclose their subjective assumptions and political values and those who dishonestly pretend they have none or conceal them from their readers.
Moreover, all journalism is a form of activism. Every journalistic choice necessarily embraces highly subjective assumptions cultural, political or nationalistic and serves the interests of one faction or another. Former Bush D.O.J. lawyer Jack Goldsmith in 2011 praised what he called the patriotism of the American press, meaning their allegiance to protecting the interests and policies of the U.S. government. That may (or may not) be a noble thing to do, but it most definitely is not objective: it is quite subjective and classically activist.
But ultimately, the only real metric of journalism that should matter is accuracy and reliability. I personally think honestly disclosing rather than hiding ones subjective values makes for more honest and trustworthy journalism. But no journalism from the most stylistically objective to the most brazenly opinionated has any real value unless it is grounded in facts, evidence, and verifiable data. The claim that overtly opinionated journalists cannot produce good journalism is every bit as invalid as the claim that the contrived form of perspective-free journalism cannot.
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I know what you are saying but where can I get real news? You are concerned that GG will slant
rhett o rick
Oct 2013
#13
I predict there will be a lot of crow eating by certain critics. I wonder how many will own
adirondacker
Oct 2013
#3
He advocates a more "activist, more partisan journalsim". I think that's the biggest
okaawhatever
Oct 2013
#15
Snowden went to Greenwald first with the story because he liked Greenwald's work
muriel_volestrangler
Oct 2013
#18
That is not the information I have. Gellman was working with Poitras very early on. She asked for
okaawhatever
Oct 2013
#27
A most excellent exchange of letters expressing their points of view, having said that
Uncle Joe
Oct 2013
#25