From Elements: "[Journalism's] practitioners must maintain an Independence from those they cover." This includes race, religion, gender, economic class, nationality, and so on. This all makes sense to me--how else can we be the objective truth-tellers that citizens expect us to be.
Recently I was talking to a friend who attends USU. She was ranting about an article she had read in the school paper, the Statesman. It was a news article with an obvious slant, and additionally she felt the bias was a stance that only someone uneducated about the topic would take. I listened to her talk, and read the article, all the while taking notes about how I could avoid making the same mistakes.
The truth is, it’s hard for us to not put opinion into what we write, especially young journalists like us. But we cannot let personal feelings into our writing. To do so would be unfair to the audience and unfair to the story and the truth.
I really like the quote “comment is free, but facts are sacred.” Everyone has an opinion, but not everyone has the truth. As a journalist, my job is to find and present that truth, and I hope I always maintain the independence I need to accomplish just that.
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