You all know what that is. Candidate A asserts that the earth is a great sphere that revolves around the sun. Candidate B asserts that the earth is a great sphere, stationary in the universe, around which the sun revolves.
Our journalist takes no side and achieves “balance and impartiality” by carefully reporting each position and ....leaves us there. Thanks a bunch! Is that all? Which of these two rascals is right, and doesn’t journalistic good practice deserve at least some attempt to clarify the dispute? Who’s right?
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard took on this and related issues of truth in journalism in its Summer 2012 issue.
A long article by Pulitzer Prize winner Linda Greenhouse asks, “Instead of striving for balance, how about truth for a goal?” Read it here.
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