Gender Wars and Objectivity

This piece in XX Factor is interesting and scary.

What I think is also interesting is an issue I see coming up in the comments that goes along with what I wrote when I came back from Australia a couple of years ago: the lack of trust in the objectivity of the journalist. Though I do not have objections or doubts about what has been presented by Katheryn Joyce, it has become so expected that journalists are writing (and scientists are researching) from their own inherent biases that people can dismiss any evidence that goes against their own preferred notions as being the presentation of people trying to unfairly sway the argument. For example, when confronted with the fact that all peer-reviewed articles found in scientific journals support the conclusion that there is extreme anthropogenic global warming, the naysayers argue that there is conspiracy within the scientific community to reject any evidence that goes against global warming and that any who dare to argue are immediately and unfairly blackballed. Conservatives don't trust the Washington Post and Liberals won't rely on the Washington Times for information. I for one have difficulty trusting anyone to give me a completely objective reporting and end up being swayed by personal pathos and whatever empirical observations I am able to draw from my own limited experience to decide where I stand on an issue, which makes any sort of open debate difficult.

Journalism

During my recent trip to Australia, a certain word came up rather frequently in discussing the work of reporters. "Relatable." I found this to be somewhat...not comical per se, but rather wryly amusing in that way I have. You see, I cannot imagine why it is important for *news* to be relatable. A human interest story? Of course that should be relatable. That's how Oprah rakes in her millions. But that is not news, and it is not, or at least *should* not, be the work of the investigative journalist. Tugging at people's heartstrings is not a worthy aim for journalists. Journalist have an unflinching duty to bring the facts, without bias, to people who do not have the resources or time to dig them up for themselves.

I also heard certain jouranalists and journalism students use the term, "passion." While I am certainly supportive of journalists having a passion for their jobs and for the news, I am extremely concerned by what appeared to be, at least among some, to be a passion for the subjects of their coverage. A journalist may be passionate about bringing the news to people, but she must be completely dispassionate about the topics on which she chooses to report. It seems that more and more, people, at least in the US, are loath to trust the news. I know I certainly am. I am unsure of any reporter's methods, and mistrustful that any news piece is free of bias, whether it be the bias of the reporter or the media outlet she works for.

I want the cold hard facts. I want facts that I can use in making my voting and purchasing decisions. I want to be given the freedom to take unadorned facts and come to my own informed opinion about them, without being swayed by the unannounced agenda of the journalist who thinks she knows better, or the over-emphasized annecdotal evidence that plays on the emotions, but fails to encapsulate the whole issue.

And, before I get accused of being the worst kind of hypocrite: I am *not* a journalist. I blog. I make it clear that I am not unbiased and I certainly am trying to sway you to a certain way of thinking. If this was not abundantly clear before, then I do apologize.