Nonpartisanship in Media

Many say the era of nonpartisan journalism is over. We don't need it. It's old fashioned. But why?

CNN and Fox News are the two most partisan news outlets on the big screen nowadays, and it seems mostly like the broadcasters just talk to get more airtime and see themselves on the screen. When they have panels, it's a screaming match where nothing productive can possibly get done.

So why are there people saying there's no need for the nonpartisanship that is taught to young journalists at universities?

I think what I'm trying to say is there seems to be a difference in partisan journalism and this new era of yelling-at-who-you-don't-agree-with-journalism. It is our media's responsibility to be the watchdog of the government, but it is not the media's job to entertain us with bickering and discrediting other journalists.

Throughout history, news media have criticized political leaders: in 1828, Andrew Jackson was attacked for marrying a woman whose divorce was not yet finalized, newspapers that were pro-Jackson accused the critics of violating the general's privacy and vouched for his innocence.

A historian is quoted saying, "The truth was not suppressed. It was simply hard to get in any one place."

How are citizens supposed to read the news media and trust what they're reading if everything is biased toward one side? Isn't it our job to report what people do and let the readers make their decision over whether it is bad or not?

Journalism with a biased tilt to it is the tell of a journalist who wants to be in charge. No-one writing for the local newspaper has a voice big enough to make huge change, but it seems journalists are so hot and heavy nowadays to make people think the way they do that the care for good journalism has left the building.

Photo provided by The Duran

I'm not saying it's not important to call out our political leaders when they are acting a fool, but what we've created now, with the help of Donald Trump, is an endless cycle of criticize, defend, repeat. Every time any news organization investigates, writes a story or simply publishes something the president tweeted onto their website, there is an attack from the president claiming: "FAKE NEWS!"

Donald Trump is taking our voices away by discrediting us to his followers. I know many people who  now believe that The New York Times and The Washington Post are phony places to get your news. Because the president doesn't like what the institutions publish.

With the rise of nonpartisan journalism, every issue has turned into a right-wing or left-wing issue. There are no human-interest ideas anymore - it's either someone writing a story with an agenda to help the liberals or someone writing a story with an agenda to help the conservatives. Why can't we all agree on simple things that are bad or good? People really have started going out of their way to defend something so out-of-whack in the name of political party.

In the 19th century, political parties were the main source of news because many of the newspapers were produced and distributed by institutions that weren't in it for money, so the partisanship was a little more prominent. Now that we have the resources and money to leave the government out of our newspapers, we should do just that.