On the Double-Standard of Objectivity and Perfection November 7, 2015
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Uncategorized.Tags: agenda, bias, civil rights, CNBC, conversative, DOJ, double-standard, federal, government, ideology, journalism, leftist, liberal, media, objectivity
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It is funny how random memories from days of long past can creep into one’s conscious mind and thus catch one off guard. One memory that keeps cropping up from time to time dates back to the early Spring semester of my freshman year in college, when I attended a lecture on a course I took on mass media (my misguided and regretful major at that time). In that lecture, the instructor tried to rationalize away the idea that the mainstream media was liberal-leftist in its bias and hidden ideology/agenda. He did so by pointing out that news itself is about change (a fair enough point, to be sure), and since change for change’s sake is a driving force for many liberals these days, it left us to surmise that being in the news business would naturally incline towards the leftist ideology.
But then the instructor added something else, too, that human objectivity is an unattainable ideal. This is the key point on which to focus. One of the conservatives’ justified gripes against many in the so-called mainstream media is that they are not objective, that their liberal bias shows not only in how they report the stories, but also which stories they report and which stories they deem unworthy of their time by not reporting. A recent example is the case of the impudent black student in South Carolina whose flagrant disobedience led her to be dragged to the floor and out of the classroom by the school’s security officer. Fanning the flames of hysteria, the MSM acted like this was a national scandal, and the federal government, (the DOJ in this case) in yet another case of poking its tentacles into a place where it has no business venturing, has said it will conduct a civil rights investigation about the matter. Seriously?
Yet when a black high school student body-slammed his high school’s principal, we hear hardly a word about it from the MSM.
Yes, it is natural for humans to have our biases. Indeed, it is part of our nature. But as rational creatures, we have the potential to overcome them when duty calls for us to do so. That said, being imperfect beings, despite being made in the image of the Creator, we often fall short of such an ideal. Nevertheless, the aforementioned double-standard is obvious enough for rational people to see through biases and recognize that these two stories at least deserve equal time so as to allow for an optimally-informed citizenry. If having such a well-informed citizenry is NOT the goal, then the very usefulness of the journalism profession within the MSM is to be seriously called into question.
Since we acknowledge that pure objectivity is often an unattainable, if not worthy ideal, can we also acknowledge, given the facts of these cases, that ideological bias pre-screens which stories even get reported?
An even deeper systemic problem is the double-standard regarding perfection itself. To acknowledge the we as human are naturally biased is tantamount to the acknowledgement that we are imperfect beings. Five and a half millennia of recorded history chronicles all these imperfections of man, and such an incredibly long span of time (from the perspective of mankind in general, not of a geologist!) attests that these imperfections are not going away any time soon. Not in this life, at least.
Yet that does not prevent many journalists in the MSM and elsewhere from nevertheless clinging to the foolish belief (demonstrated to be foolish by more than 5,000 years of human experience) that mankind is somehow perfectible. Their naïve yet dangerous idea is that all they need to do to be rewarded in their gigantic leap of faith is to “point the way” to the betterment of man. Invariably, their way to a more enlightened, perfected species is through more and more government-sponsored indoctrination, government intervention, and control.
Such dangerous, authoritarian ideas naturally attract a coalition of other groups and individuals who see a government increased in magnitude, strength, and centrality to our lives as a way of begetting their own parochial agendas, from political feminists (is there any other kind?) to race hustlers, to environmental activists.
The overall point is, the lack of objectivity one can discern from stories printed in the New York Times to the flagrant malpractice on display by the CNBC crew at the most recent Republican primary debate is at once part of a double-standard that liberal sycophants all too readily rationalize, while at the same time ignore a far more systemic problem. Yes, it is all well and good to acknowledge that we cannot expect perfect objectivity from reporters at that level of journalism. But can they at least try? The fact that they seem not to suggests an ideological filtering of those who enter this profession in the first place. Is it any wonder that former basketball coach Bobby Knight had such disdain for the profession? That is to say, folks go into the MSM already with an agenda, and leave objectivity at the front door, never to reclaim it.
Even more disturbing? Their own lack of clarity of thought will lead them to quickly point out that they themselves are flawed when it comes to objectivity (or lack thereof), yet turn around and cling to the faith of the perfectibility of man.
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