"Transparency is the new Objectivity"

Jay Rosen was the one who said that in 2009 and he was the one who inspired this post.

Last year, I was told that objectivity is the end goal for every journalist because if you cannot be objective, then you cannot properly present a story.

When did objectivity turn into "Here's Side A. Here's Side B. Now, argue!" which is the kind of stuff you can see on any large broadcast news station today. Fox is not so fair and balanced, CNN should not be the most trusted name in news, and MSNBC claims it leans forward rather than left or right.

I have my biases. I am extremely left-wing (I'm so far left that I'm waving at the mainstream lefties from miles away--even they think I'm too far left). I have my own set of values. There are some things that I deem unimportant and there are some things that I readily research on my own. I will report on differently because I am my own person with my own ideals.

That doesn't mean I can't fairly report on things I like or dislike. In fact, that make me more likely to go uncover something an objectively apathetic journalist might miss. The stereotypical objective reporter misses the larger point of stories because he's too busy moving on to the next story without any sense of attachment to the last one. Arianna Huffington was the one who said, "Mainstream media suffer from attention deficit disorder. New media suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder."

Objectivity sounds more like knowingly lying to your readers. If you can't be objective, don't pretend to be. Acknowledge your biases and keep them out of the story, but allow them to spur you on.