News Journalism and the Principles of Objectivity

Mainstream news journalism [MNJ] faces a practical dilemma founded on a theoretical mistake about objectivity. In this article, we aim to bring this mistake to light and to propose a new model for its practice. MNJ has over the past century attempted to achieve its ultimate democratic goals — informing citizens and holding those in positions of power to account — by adhering to objectivity as a master value. This commitment to objectivity can be specified in terms of principles, such as the principle of reporting ‘just the facts’ without interpretation. But, we argue, taking principles like this one to be maxims that must be followed in every circumstance tends to undermine the democratic goals of MNJ. Practitioners of MNJ therefore face a dilemma: either jettison objectivity as a master value or shirk the pursuit of its ultimate democratic goals. We argue that they should take the former route and, instead, adopt a conception of MNJ as a form of democratic political agency. Under this conception, MNJ aims at informing citizens and holding those in power to account while eschewing the partisan agendas of politicians or advocacy groups. We defend this conception against alternatives, including characterizations of MNJ as mere propaganda and the mistaken conflation of MNJ’s democratic goals with those of so-called activist journalism. In so doing, we try to provide the outlines of a philosophical approach to journalism, a profession that philosophers have largely ignored despite its social importance.