Thread by @drvox: "1. I really need to stop ruining my Sunday with Twitter, but before I go enjoy actual life, a few words on "objective" political journalism […]"
20 tweets
5 hours ago
2.
The pretense of objective journalism (OJ) is that reporters are not
supposed to favor one side of a political or policy dispute. That would
be "bias" & would cast doubt on their veracity & reliability.
"Just the facts, ma'am." Straight shooter. No fear or favor. Etc.
3.
There's a germ of something worthwhile in the premise -- reporters
should obviously be honest & fair -- but it has calcified into a set
of useless, arbitrary habits & prohibitions, in ways that dozens of
people have written about. (see esp. @jayrosen_nyu)
4.
The point I'd throw in the mix is that conforming to this arbitrary set
of practices has effects on the journalists involved. I mean, imagine
covering substantive disputes every day but *not allowing yourself to
develop opinions about them*. It takes will & effort!
5.
I've had occasion to talk to "objective" reporters many times in my
life & I always try to probe, to find out what they think about
particular policy & political disputes. And I always discover the
same thing.
6.
On matters of substance, "objective" political reporters tend to be
mind-bogglingly naive & unsophisticated. Shockingly so. It turns
out, when you suppress your critical facilities as part of your job, you
lose the ability.
7.
Political/policy analysis, when done well, is developed through
*dialog*. It's developed through arguing, testing, pushing, finding
weaknesses & incorporating feedback. It's a muscle that requires
exercise. And "objective" reporters don't exercise it. So it withers.
8.
I've seen it again & again: when I can cajole "objective" reporters
into sharing their opinions on, oh, the national debt, or climate
policy, or electoral dynamics, those opinions are almost always
shockingly flat-footed & childlike.
9.
What's worse, all such substantive judgments are placed in the bucket
of "partisan," which "objective" reporters are trained &
acculturated to view with disdain. Strong opinions about matters of
policy become, in a perverse way, disqualifying among VSPs.
10.
Meanwhile, even as they are trained to suppress critical judgments on
matters of substance, ALL political reporters, even & especially
"objective" ones, lovingly cultivate their "savvy," i.e., their opinions
on matters of "optics" & appearance & process.
11.
For some reason, judgments about what "works," or how something
"plays," are not considered subjective-in-the-bad-way. Because such
judgements are, at least on the surface, non-partisan, they aren't
considered biases.
12.
Here's the thing, though: on matters of, say, health care, there are
actual facts. There is actual knowledge to be had, actual numbers,
actual evidence. There's a tether in the real world. But when it comes
to matters of political "savvy," there is no such tether.
13.
"Knowing" something about political optics just means *knowing what the
DC chattering classes are saying about it*. There are no actual facts
& very little evidence. It's not just an insular form of knowledge,
it is *defined* by insularity. The insularity is the premise.
14.
So you get this whole class of reporters who disdain subject matter
knowledge but treasure the insular circle-jerk knowledge of their cozy
social class. It is a toxic combo. And worst of all, it makes the
journalists in question *incredibly easy marks for liars &
hucksters.*
15.
Coverage of Scott Pruitt has been such a case in point. Objective
reporters (who, I hasten to add, have done some incredible investigative
journalism around Pruitt) are allowed to say that it's bad & wrong
for Pruitt to, say, get chauffeured around seeking lotion ...
16.
... but they're not allowed to say it's bad & wrong to allow coal
companies to dump more toxins in the water. As it happens, on the
substance, there is NO justification for that policy. It is *bad on the
merits*, a naked corporate giveaway. Still ...
17.
... because it's policy, they aren't allowed to adjudicate the dispute.
It's for someone else, some "partisan" journalist, to educate readers
on the merits of the substantive disagreement. Objective journos can
only have an opinion on how pro-poison policies "play."
18.
Consequently, the next EPA administrator is going to push the same
terrible, destructive policies, without the process-based scandals, and
"objective" journalists will have absolutely nothing to say about it.
They're not allowed to be anti-poison.
19.
And so here we are: the journalism that most Americans get about
politics contains a surfeit of BS savvy & absolutely nothing about
the matters of substance that actually affect their lives. They get
played like fiddles by liars & crooks again & again ...
20.
... but as long as they stay in the herd, report the same way the
others are, they're safe. They'll get no social censure from the peers
& powerful people they care most about. And the American people will
be misinformed & the US will continue devolving to shit. Yay.
</fin>
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