Is the role of the media to present "facts" or "both sides to a story"?

[Martinus]

What is your view, all things considered? Have we become so obsessed with media being "objective" that today the model of the media is to give equal air time to two sides of every issue, no matter how boneheaded, outrageous or plain wrong one side of it may be? Or has the "truth" become so elusive and relative in this post-modern era, that any case where the media take sides means they automatically become "partisan"?

[garbon]

Have we become so obsessed with media being "objective" that today the model of the media is to give equal air time to two sides of every issue, no matter how boneheaded, outrageous or plain wrong one side of it may be?

Well we don't actually have the Fairness Doctrine in place anymore so...

[Berkut]

There doesn't appear to be any media concern in a practical sense for them to be anything other than entertainment.

[DGuller]

In theory, I don't see anything wrong with media reporting the facts, and calling bullshit on the opposing soundbite.  In practice, the media is run by journalists, which seems to be a profession that is most devoid of critical thinking out of all the professions.

[CountDeMoney]

Professional journalism died the very moment the letters "www" were strung together.

[garbon]

Professional journalism died the very moment the letters "www" were strung together.

Coincidence that such appears to have occurred around the time of the fall of the Soviet Union?

[Malthus]

Professional journalism died the very moment the letters "www" were strung together.

Coincidence that such appears to have occurred around the time of the fall of the Soviet Union?

Reminds me of the old joke - in Russia the state lies and the press lies; in the West, the state lies and the press lies. The only difference is that in the West, the lies are not the same lies. 

[Martinus]

Have we become so obsessed with media being "objective" that today the model of the media is to give equal air time to two sides of every issue, no matter how boneheaded, outrageous or plain wrong one side of it may be?

Well we don't actually have the Fairness Doctrine in place anymore so...

Still, it seems to be the most popular modus operandi these days to invite a geography professor and a flat Earth society representative, and have them argue on air.

[Viking]

Getting a fair and balanced look at both sides of the issue is a bit like getting Joseph Göbbels and Chaim Waitzman on to discuss the holocaust. In a sense pure theoretical journalism won't get you anywhere except post-modernist relativist bs and mud slinging for the entire 3 minute segment.

Journalists who do let their feelings, preconceptions and conclusions into their journalism almost always do so from a position of emotion and feeling.

Presenting both sides will almost certainly not make anybody informed, each side will merely grasp their own preferred facts and conclusions and run with them. Presenting the facts means first picking which facts to present and then people will just grasp their own preferred facts and conclusions and run with them.

I think we need more asshole journalists like Jeremy Paxman and others. IMHO journalism today is pussified and partisan. This is what was always going to happen when journalism is a self selecting profession. We need more wannabe writers who can't get published or asocial dicks who can't hold down a job in insurance or whatever. The fucking last thing we need is political hacks and naïve idealists who want to save the world. We need more scumbags who think that the point of journalism is make the marks and n00bs more informed.

[grumbler]

There doesn't appear to be any media concern in a practical sense for them to be anything other than entertainment.

You should probably pick other media, then.  I think NPR generally does a pretty good job of presenting different sides to a debate, for instance, and their news shows are not intended as pure entertainment.

[CountDeMoney]

I think NPR generally does a pretty good job of presenting different sides to a debate, for instance, and their news shows are not intended as pure entertainment.

Must be why Republicans in the House try ever year to defund it.

[Barrister]

Have we become so obsessed with media being "objective" that today the model of the media is to give equal air time to two sides of every issue, no matter how boneheaded, outrageous or plain wrong one side of it may be?

Well we don't actually have the Fairness Doctrine in place anymore so...

Still, it seems to be the most popular modus operandi these days to invite a geography professor and a flat Earth society representative, and have them argue on air.

That's not because the media is trying to be objective though.  Rather, putting two wildly varying points of view and letting them argue is cheap and reasonably amusing programming.

[grumbler]

Must be why Republicans in the House try ever year to defund it. 

NPR itself gets very little federal funding.  Almost all of the Fed money goes to keep stations going in the boonies, where there isn't enough corporate or member support to keep stations going.   These are, amusingly enough, Republican strongholds.

[grumbler]

That's not because the media is trying to be objective though.  Rather, putting two wildly varying points of view and letting them argue is cheap and reasonably amusing programming.

Exactly.  That type of "debate" is designed to generate heat, not light.

[CountDeMoney]

Must be why Republicans in the House try ever year to defund it. 

NPR itself gets very little federal funding.  Almost all of the Fed money goes to keep stations going in the boonies, where there isn't enough corporate or member support to keep stations going.   These are, amusingly enough, Republican strongholds.

I know that.  You know that.  What few ducats they get from the government doesn't stop them from trying to kill it every year, however.  The concepts of public radio or public television is communist, you know.

House GOP Unveils Bill To Kill AmeriCorps, End Federal Funding For NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood