Posts tagged objectivity

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Even a novice blogger can tell you that posting headlines based on momentary snapshots of a fast-changing narrative are likely to mislead. Twitter is the stuff of unfettered news streams. Websites should be edited. 

So what is a reader to make of the headline above: “Gaza rocket fire kills Israelis”? What instinctive conclusions does such a snapshot invite us to arrive at? And is this a fair way of covering this story? [ BBC website screenshot taken at 10am today ].

We all have bias but the BBC clings to the figleaf of old news organisations that maintains objectivity is possible and can be protected no matter what. Its strategy here seems to be to suffocate whatever bias might exist behind the avalanche of changing data such a fast-changing story offers. It is a way of avoiding the responsibility to contextualise for fear of being obliged to tell a version of truth some will disagree with. And the results make its website appear either glib or biased. In my view, the latter.

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