Suppress editorials, report your opinion?
Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on November 16, 2006 at 10:05 AM
The never-ending American journalism debate, namely that of the indomitable division between fact and opinion, will – I think – never end.
Some American journalists are getting quite sick of it. Eric Alterman, from The Nation, wouldn’t mind the suppression altogether of the editorial page, the only space in a newspaper where opinion is not only tolerated, it is encouraged.
Some American journalists are getting quite sick of it. Eric Alterman, from The Nation, wouldn’t mind the suppression altogether of the editorial page, the only space in a newspaper where opinion is not only tolerated, it is encouraged.
His argument protests against the unjustified assimilation made by the public between the opinionated editorial and the ‘objective’ reporting: too often articles are discredited under the false pretense that they emulate the editorial’s bias.
Alterman wants to suppress more than the editorial. Following the European tradition of journalism, he wouldn’t mind the destruction of what he calls the “phony distinction between ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’.”
“Why not just let reporters tell us what they know to be true and how and why they know it?” Alterman wrote in a Nov. 9th article.
Alterman hopes that such a solution would keep the engaging form of the blogosphere “without sacrificing the crucial function of newspapers in a democratic society.” Of course there’s also the probable possibility this could lead newspapers to – what they did before – serve as the hectic battlefield for personal, unharnessed, rhetoric.
Source : The Nation – More on the fact vs. opinion debate
Alterman wants to suppress more than the editorial. Following the European tradition of journalism, he wouldn’t mind the destruction of what he calls the “phony distinction between ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’.”
“Why not just let reporters tell us what they know to be true and how and why they know it?” Alterman wrote in a Nov. 9th article.
Alterman hopes that such a solution would keep the engaging form of the blogosphere “without sacrificing the crucial function of newspapers in a democratic society.” Of course there’s also the probable possibility this could lead newspapers to – what they did before – serve as the hectic battlefield for personal, unharnessed, rhetoric.
Source : The Nation – More on the fact vs. opinion debate
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