Alex BoydNov 14, 2022
This is such an interesting conversation to me. It's drilled into journalists to "report the news, not *be* the news." But at a time when trust is plummeting, many people don't really understand what we do or consider us elites, I wonder if being more personal helps bridge the perceived gap between us and readers. For better or worse, we're just people. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/reader-center/getting-personal-with-millions-of-readers.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR3a-gswxD4KLzIOueKwjjzNU-_JHejGPeG7vHlRvDv8YbBH0xJDsOM4qz4
Getting Personal With Millions of Readers

Three New York Times writers share why sharing their own experiences in some articles is worth it, what boundaries they set and what the night before publication is like.

Show threadPanicButton

@alexboyd Everyone has a bias they come from, no matter how hard they try to step away from it. While I like an effort at being fair, I respect people who don't try to pretend that they are viewing things impartially from high upon Olympus.

Now, obviously, I'm not a journalist, just someone who's seen the value of aiming for impartiality and the pains caused by the same.

Nov 14, 2022 at 3:09amWeb
Show threadAlex BoydNov 14, 2022

@PanicButton Yeah I hear you. It's hard not to roll your eyes a bit when people pretend to have no perspective on anything. (Lol "from high upon Olympus." Exactly!)

A concept that I have found useful is objectivity of process, if not outcome. So the point is not to never take sides (for example, stories that pit a climate change expert against a skeptic are not helpful) but to look at both sides rigorously and fairly and, if appropriate, reach a conclusion.

Show threadPanicButtonNov 14, 2022
@alexboyd That should be aimed for, yes. Unfortunately, just going through the motions and putting your thumb on the scale in secret or even just the lazy "here's a person who wants to kill all X and a member of X" school of balanced reporting has grown widely and damaged the reputation and methodology of journalism both.
The snobbery implied by my Olympus comment also does much to alienate the audience and distort the perspective of some journalists. Like most things, there's a lot going on.