Am I old school yet?

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=all_the_news_thats_fit_to_depress

'After awhile we look up and get engrossed in a conversation that will last long after our coffee has gone cold -- what, in God's name, are we supposed to do with this information? What are we -- three well-educated, big-hearted, human beings -- supposed to do when we get up from these tables and discard this paper, knowing about the dead people and dreams in Iraq, the injured in India, the starving and old in Maine?'

'This has to change. There must be some method whereby we can become informed and inspired to action. Maybe the answer lies in retraining journalists to go one step beyond reporting. Get the story, and also seek information about how a reader might constructively respond to it. This, of course, would require increased support for the work of investigative journalists. It would also require strategic partnerships between the professional media and nonprofit worlds, links that already exist between journalism and international affairs schools like those at Columbia University.

Maybe the answer lies in citizen journalists -- folks who often abandon the old-school idea of objectivity and tackle local issues with a verve for making change, not just reporting on it. This trend is already on the rise, and while it makes traditional journalists wince, maybe it could actually serve to empower some of the country's currently disenchanted readers.'
Hat tip: KisP/SondraK

This woman thinks she's well-educated? I beg to differ. In fact, all the people who've been educated AT ALL would like to differ. If society can't tell the difference between a campaigner and a journalist, or an advocate and a journalist, then its in trouble. And the fact that this idiot can't figure out what might be wrong with replacing all our newspaper articles with editorials is an indication that perhaps the importance of objectivity, indeed even the possibility of objectivity, is very much neglected in US universities. The danger of a little knowledge...

Oh, and I'd like Courtney to know that despite being a polemicist I am completely dedicated to objectivity. As I would hope are all the other bloggers who hope to have anyone pay attention to their words. Objectivity means 'judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices' according to the dictionary. To me it also means being able to see the flaws and mistakes in your own thinking, being able to see what your views entail and being able to look back at yourself with honesty. This is what you'd like our journalists to give up?