Re: NJC Two great articles on war

[sl . m]

Kate, I think what you say is exactly right, and that's one good example of why objectivity in journalism is virtually impossible, whether it's a report or something on the editorial pages. The words you choose to describe what you see often say more about your own mind, than about the thing you're supposed to be observing. And the more politically complex the story, the more likely you'll be picking your words with great care, to satisfy your own political agenda, or the editor's, the publisher's, the owner's, the advertisers', or the readers'.

For example, there's a big hoo-ha in Canada about the CBC, Canadian Broadcasting Company - which is state-owned and therefore seen as a reflection of government to some extent - refusing to call Palestinian gunmen "terrorists".

As an example, the National Post newspaper (which is pro-Israel) might say in its reports: "Palestinian terrorists last night gunned down a group of Israeli teenagers at a bus stop." [Subtext: Palestinians are evil, Israelis are completely innocent.] Reporting the same incident, the CBC (which is more pro-Palestinian) might say: "Palestinian militiamen (or gunmen) last night gunned down a group of young Israeli settlers at a bus stop." [Subtext: the Palestinian attackers are an army that some might view as legitimate, and the young Israelis maybe shouldn't have been there in the first place.]

It's hard if not impossible to write a brief news report about a complex political issue without these subtexts and loaded words, so I would say objectivity in reporting is close to impossible. The best you can hope for IMO is to be fair.

Sarah


At 4:13 PM -0800 02/08/2003, Kate Bennett wrote:

"The Russians and French responded to Powell with some artful platitudes
about the need to strengthen the inspections regime. ". . . a change of 2 words could greatly change the slant of this sentence, for example: "The Russians and French responded to Powell with some good arguments about the need to strengthen the inspections regime." so choosing words is most definately a subjective thing as 'artful platitudes' vs 'good arguments' demonstrates...the words chosen definately reflect a writer's bias imo...