There’s nothing inherently wrong with that when writing an opinion piece. Editorials and opinion columns always represent the columnist’s or management’s position on an issue. Problems, however, can arise when an opinion is stated as fact and then the “evidence” presented in support of such statements is erroneous. When serious implications are made about an administration’s performance and the examples cited don’t add up, then it’s not simply bad journalism; it’s dangerous journalism.
One of the most stringent codes of journalistic conduct is reporting without bias. "Gotcha journalism", the deliberate manipulation of the presentation of facts in order to portray a person or organization (or in this case, Mayor Trent’s lack of transparency) in a way that varies from an accurate or balanced review of the facts, is highly questionable because it's deliberately biased reporting.
In an article published in last Sunday’s The Seattle Times syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. broached that specific issue. “Editorials/Opinion: don’t confuse them with facts,” he writes.
“To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper's online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth. We admit no ideas that do not confirm us, hear no voices that do not echo us, sift out all information that does not validate what we wish to believe.”
He continues: “But objective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it's a wall. And you shouldn't have to hit it to find that out.”
This is why media education is vital for newspaper readers and media watchers. People must learn to approach news with a discerning and probing mind. Media education isn’t about having the right answers, but about having the selective reasoning required to ask the right questions or at least question the questions being asked.
Facts are facts and opinion doesn’t change them.
Opinions are not facts
Opinions are not facts
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Published on
February 24, 2010
- Published on March 22, 2010
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Toula Foscolos
The problem and ultimate danger with any opinion column is that it can often veer off into dangerously slanderous territory. Despite what journalists have been taught about objectivity and weighing all sides of a story, we’re still human and most of the times we’ve pretty much formed on opinion before sitting down to write the story you’ll ultimately see in print.
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