sarah wrote >>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.>>
here's another example of something i ran across unexpectedly, that i think illustrates the point we've been discussing: "In covering the Afghanistan war, Pitts said, "I wanted to avoid the temptation to label people with terms like 'savage,' words like that, which journalists have used in the past to describe minority communities in the United States. Those words are loaded with the biases of the reporter and have no basis, and I didn't want to make the same mistake in referring to the Afghanistan people." He remembered covering a Jesse Jackson speech in a small southern church a few years ago, where the black audience was shouting vehemently as Jackson talked. "Some of my colleagues thought these people were upset and angry with Jackson, that because the people were shouting they must have disagreed and were voicing their disapproval," Pitts said. "I had to explain that in the culture of Black America, shouting was actually their sign of total agreement with what Jackson had to say. I had to bring the same sensitivity to covering the people and the war in Afghanistan." http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20020128.htm ******************************************** Kate Bennett: www.katebennett.com Sponsored by Polysonics/Atlantis Sound Labs Over the Moon- "bringing the melancholy world of twilight to life almost like magic" All Music Guide ********************************************
