Journalism Is Dead (No, This Time It Really Is)

Back in the aughts when I was covering the White House as a national newspaper, I learned of internal discussions at Associated Press.

The long-running wire service supplies news to newspapers and news sites, and guess what? Many of them are liberal. So (and you can’t blame them), the AP delivers liberal news for their liberal readers. That’s just business.

So it turned out the AP was sick of all this balanced, just-the-facts-ma’am news stuff. The AP no longer needed to present opposing views equally. Top editors agreed that they would decide what viewpoint should prevail and what should be minimized.

The AP began to cover President George W. Bush in a biased fashion, and it has since fallen from grace. Since then, the wire service has become little more than a Democratic organ spewing out the party’s talking points.

It’s not hard to believe that journalism suffered serious injuries back then. But, the newsroom’s libs have returned to fire off the final kill shot.

Andrew Heyward, former executive editor of The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr., and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward conducted interviews with more than 75 media executives and compiled their findings into a report. Report titled, “Beyond Objectivity: Producing Trustworthy News in Today’s Newsroom.”

Is this the conclusion? It is now considered harmful, reactionary, and even harmful that media objectivity is allowed. Emilio Garcia Ruiz was editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Objectivity has got to go.”

This is exactly what liberal professors teach liberal students in liberal educational institutions. It’s now all about advocacy — pushing one side — and every fledgling journalist wants to be an activist that promotes change.

“Many forces have eroded public trust in journalism over the years. Additionally, the traditional standard of ‘objectivity’ has lost its relevance for a new generation of journalists and news consumers,” Downie and Heyward wrote.

“This report and accompanying ‘playbook’ offer actionable guidelines to help news organizations restore a belief in the value of fair, fact-based reporting — trustworthy news. We provide a fresh vision for how to replace outmoded ‘objectivity’ with a more relevant articulation of journalistic standards,” They wrote.

The new edict of new journalism comes as Bob Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein helped break Watergate, finally acknowledged that the Russian collusion coverage during former President Donald Trump’s term lacked objectivity and resulted in false reporting.

In a report for Columbia Journalism Review, journalist Jeff Gerth interviewed media and political figures who pushed Russiagate — which turned out to be completely false. Woodward stated to Gerth that readers and viewers had been “cheated” Fox News coverage reported.

“Bob Woodward, of the Post, told me that news coverage of the Russia inquiry ‘wasn’t handled well’ and that he thought viewers and readers had been ‘cheated.’ He encouraged newsrooms to ‘walk down the painful road of introspection,’” Gerth wrote.

But the idea of presenting news in an unbiased fashion, allowing both sides an opportunity to explain its position, has been dying for a while.

Back in 2021, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt declared “fairness is overrated.”

“The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in. That the sun sets in the west is a fact. Any contrary view does not deserve our time or attention,” Holt said, The Daily Wire reported at the time.

Of course, that’This is an absurd oversimplification. How about complicated issues such as abortion, climate change, or anything that comes out of the White House and Capitol? Nothing’s ever that clear cut.

But Holt said there’s no longer any need for a journalist to give both sides of a story equal weight.

“Decisions to not give unsupported arguments equal time are not a dereliction of journalistic responsibility or some kind of agenda. In fact, it’s just the opposite,” Holt spoke. “Providing an open platform for misinformation, for anyone to come say whatever they want, especially when issues of public health and safety are at stake, can be quite dangerous.”

“Our duty is to be fair to the truth. Holding those in power accountable is at the core of our function and responsibility. We need to hear our leaders’ views, their policies, and reasoning. It’s really important. But we have to stand ready to push back and call out falsehoods.”

Never forget that journalists are now the ones who decide what is important. “truth” is. It’s no wonder Americans have lost faith in its media.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has been covering politics for 35+ years, 12 of which were as a White House correspondent for a national paper. For four years, he served as the Drudge Report’s morning editor. Send tips to [email protected] Follow him everywhere