What Qualifies as Opinion For a Journalist on Social Media Accounts?

Hardika Singh

hs152416@ohio.edu 

 

It is no doubt that the protests sparked after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis took over the whole country by storm, prompting discussions about race in corporate America. One of those debates surrounds journalists who say #BlackLivesMatter on their social media accounts and whether that is considered an opinion or a statement of basic human rights.   

Journalists are often advised and in some cases instructed to shy away from expressing any political opinion on their social media accounts. Some argue that tweeting opinions can come off as subjective and biased, which might reflect poorly on not just the journalist but also the whole news organization. Black Lives Matter enters the center of this debate as more journalists take to Twitter to speak up against police brutality and systemic racism against Black people. 

Picture source: CNN News

The Black Lives Matter movement is also considered an indication of someone's political beliefs. Conservatives often associate Black Lives Matter with violent protests and riots and argue that the movement only cares about Black people and disregards people of all other races, according to an article on Rewire News. However, liberals argue that while all lives do matter, Black lives particularly matter because they are the ones who are inappropriately targeted for racism and being murdered. This partisan divide over the Black Lives Matter movement is another factor that plays a role in why journalists are not recommended to post the controversial hashtag. 

Many rely on a journalist's quick analysis of a topic to understand why they should care about any issue. For example, in a magazine article by The Atlantic, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg reported that since 1980, more than 260,000 Black men have been killed in America. Using that number, Goldberg can say on Twitter that Black men are dying, which should allow for the use of #BlackLivesMatter since he is backing up his statement with data. 

Acknowledging that Black people across America are dying should not be considered opinion if it comes from fact-based reporting. And the fact is that Black people are dying at a a greater rate than white people -- Black people are more than three times as likely as white people to be killed during a police encounter, according to a study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers. In today's world, while a journalist's job consists of providing news of what happened and who said what, it also encompasses the bigger question of "So what?" and a need for analysis. As journalists, we have a duty to report it, no matter how harsh the truth may sound.