Journalistic objectivity means facilitating truth, not equal time to falsehood

Evidence

The media may have told themselves that it was not their job to take a stand on a “partisan” issue, but in an environment in which a little research surely would have told them that scientists were not divided, this amounted to journalistic malpractice. The goal of objectivity is not to give equal time between truth and falsehood—it is to facilitate the truth. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 164

Categorization

• DEFINE: Redefines what ‘objectivity’ properly demands of journalism in a post-truth era.
• APHORISMS: The formulation ‘objectivity facilitates the truth, not equal time between truth and falsehood’ reads as durable professional wisdom.
• XREF: connects to: Newspaper objectivity can be compromised by editorial sympathy for powerful figures — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 867; Equal-time objectivity norms create false equivalence on settled factual issues — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 158; Journalistic objectivity grants a false outsider status to reports created from inside conflicts — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 869 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The goal of objectivity is to facilitate truth, not equal time. #epitomizes (0.98) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 164
• Journalistic objectivity is a recent convention enabling shared trust markers rather than actual truth. #complicates (0.75) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 74
• Evenhanded journalism can itself bias public scientific belief #qualifies (0.75) — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 61
• Broadcast objectivity is an operational fiction hiding selective, value-laden construction. #complicates (0.75)
• Journalistic objectivity grants a false outsider status to reports created from inside conflicts #qualifies (0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 869
• Journalistic rules of impartiality suppress reporters’ own inferences #qualifies (0.72) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 136