A journalist spurns objectivity gets fired/caption
Objectivity is dead and Im okay with it." Lewis Wallace former Marketplace" reporter
The above is the title of his essay published on the website Medium. As this attitude negates Wallaces impartial" role as a journalist he was ultimately terminated by his employer.
Recall the purpose of journalism is to convey current events impartially with facts. Any unbound personunwilling to exercise fact-based dispassioncant be a legitimate journalist. Instead thats a de facto activist: a propagandist with a press pass.
Facts are essential intractable things. They remain elemental to authentic journalism. Specifically facts anchor news stories to reality. When correctly utilized they greatly aid journalistic truth-telling. Just the facts maamfor good reason.
Journalisms traditional tenets dont impede anyone with skill from getting their writerly point across. Wallace finds himself in the unemployment line solely for willfully violating a professional taboo. Demonstrating the rank intolerance he rails against he writes:
We need to admit that those who oppose free speech diversity and kindergarten level fairness are our enemies".
How is it not fascism to demonize others simply for holding a different political perspective? Is it not hypocritical and childish to condemn another in the name of Wallaces militant fairness"? To paraphrase Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch a bad judge to the law is equivalent to the journalist disregarding objectivity. They are incongruent and cannot coexist in the same sphere.
Without facts journalism rapidly degrades into valueless gelatinous goo. Reporting becomes untrustworthy and indistinguishable from fiction. Hence the Orwellian specter of todays fake news". The false is peddled as true: witness the absurd claim of Trumps threat to invade Mexico". (He didnt per CNN he actually offered help.) This Associated Press narrative was mindlessly disseminated far and wide as truth. Is this American journalism or an old fashioned telephone game from Mr. Wallaces kindergarten class?
Beyond the editorial page neutrality remains a job requirement. Lewis Wallace confused a First Amendment right of self-expression with his professional duty. His employer acted appropriately because he wouldnt (read: another pesky fact for this victim" to misconstrue and grouse about).
As with everything he advocates Wallace only has himself to blame. This is the fallout of competing interestsand the healthy expression of a difference of opinion.
David L. Hunter is an Associate Editor at Capitol Hill Outsider. Hes on Twitter and blogs at davidlhunter.blogspot.com. He is published in The Washington Post The Washington Times FrontPage Mag and extensively in Patriot Post Canada Free Press and American Thinker.