Editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker is being attacked for telling reporters to stop packaging their opinions as news.
This point of view is a breath of fresh air! If only all media would take this stance, facts over opinions. The many false narratives floating around, brainwashing the gullible would be over with. This is REAL journalism, yet the man is being attacked for setting reporters straight.
IJR| After the president’s rally in Phoenix on Tuesday, at which he went on an extended rant against the media and reporters, Baker addressed what he saw as opinionated coverage by reporters and editors.
“Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting,” Baker wrote in response to a draft article about the rally, according to a copy of emails obtained by The New York Times.
“Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?” he continued.
Some on social media sided with Baker, seeing his viewpoint as hard to come by in the current media environment:
Amazing to me that an editor is under fire for telling reporters to stick to reporting/leave opinions up to readers. https://t.co/nM4BZTC9n6
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) August 24, 2017
[…]Regardless, some Journal reporters are odds with Baker’s approach.
“We need to be able to cover the new administration with the probing, aggressiveness, and authority that our readers deserve and pay for,” one journalist wrote in an email obtained by the Times.
Gerard Baker hit the nail on the head, this is exactly how it is supposed to be. Facts over opinion. The media has evolved in a way that will destroy itself. A journalist is not supposed to have a discernible opinion, not in an article they offer.
Their thoughts and opinions should not, in any way, leak into their writing. Journalism schools and editors used to strictly teach and mentor this, I assume this is no longer the case. We need more men like Baker in the media, I’m tired of hearing opinionated “news”.