Comments on: Washington Post, Social Networks and Transparency http://mediactive.com/2009/09/30/washington-post-social-networks-and-transparency/ Creating a User's Guide to Democratized Media Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:41:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mindy McAdams http://mediactive.com/2009/09/30/washington-post-social-networks-and-transparency/#comment-998 Mindy McAdams Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:33:14 +0000 http://mediactive.com/?p=604#comment-998 Re: "I wish that U.S. news organizations would drop the pretense of being impartial and having no world view. There’s no conflict between having a world view and doing great journalism." I agree, and I wish we could say this in rooms full of journalists without eliciting gasps of horror. Well, maybe I elicit gasps because I usually say, "I don't believe in objectivity." I should learn to be more subtle. Still, why can't we say trying one's best to be fair, to be accurate, to be complete, are better goals -- better for the public, and better for the journalism -- than filling in a lot of he-said-she-said to create a facade of objectivity? More transparency -- from individual journalists as well as from journalism organizations -- would make journalism better, and would be a big step toward restoring the credibility that has been lost. Re: “I wish that U.S. news organizations would drop the pretense of being impartial and having no world view. There’s no conflict between having a world view and doing great journalism.”

I agree, and I wish we could say this in rooms full of journalists without eliciting gasps of horror. Well, maybe I elicit gasps because I usually say, “I don’t believe in objectivity.” I should learn to be more subtle.

Still, why can’t we say trying one’s best to be fair, to be accurate, to be complete, are better goals — better for the public, and better for the journalism — than filling in a lot of he-said-she-said to create a facade of objectivity?

More transparency — from individual journalists as well as from journalism organizations — would make journalism better, and would be a big step toward restoring the credibility that has been lost.

]]>