We all lose when journalism is biased |
We all lose when journalism is biased
When I began my career in journalism, I was based in Europe. Traveling around the continent, I learned how different the European model of journalism was from my native U.S.
In Spain, for example, El Pais catered to liberals and El Mundo to conservatives. You might be saying, well, it’s similar in the U.S. — The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal cater to similar crowds respectively.
The difference is that partisanship in U.S. newspapers was limited to the Opinion pages. In those Spanish newspapers, editorial choices and assignments were considered with politics in mind. But in American newsrooms, a policy of dispassionate journalism above the political fray was practiced. It wasn’t always perfect, but it was the goal to strive for.
Sadly, something has shifted within American journalism in this era of divisiveness and hyper-partisanship. The New York Times — considered by many the paragon of American journalism and one of the most important newspapers in the world — has surrendered this hallowed tradition. It is an example of the degradation of American journalism and of where the profession seems to be headed.
The latest blow to the reputation of The Times is an odious column by Nicholas Kristoff dated May 11, in which he made the extraordinary claim that Israelis are training dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. The absurd claims were immediately debunked by animal experts, and the Israeli government is suing The Times for defamation.
The Times is well-known for its fact-checking rigor. But for some reason it seems to have abandoned its standards to give a star columnist his latest........