BookBlog

Aaron Swartz on phony objectivity

in the service of some notional “objectivity”, American media will only repeat “facts”—that is, quotes provided by both sides... journalism’s goal should be to be fair and accurate (the oppposite of false and misleading), not “objective” and “balanced”. A journalist should tell the whole truth and not try to mislead the reader. But as long they do so, they should be free to give whatever context and draw whatever conclusions they feel are appropriate. Once you’ve given side A and side B a fair shake, there’s no harm—indeed, there’s a great service—in telling which side you’ve chosen and why.