As the 20th century approached, a New York Times editorial aimed at competitors said, “There is an abundance of news in the world without descending to that which is not fit to print…”

The Times developed a reputation as the “Gray Lady.” By its own description, the paper was filled with “dense pillars of words.” Flashy design, eye-catching photos, and lurid content was left to New York publications owned by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

Pulitzer’s New York World and Hearst’s New York Journal were competing aggressively and facts were often not important in their profit-driven coverage.  The style was “yellow journalism.” Today, those New York publishers would be labelled as purveyors of fake news and likely owned by the Murdoch Family.

Years later, not much has changed for the better. Some major sources of news deliver acceptably objective reporting, while others have almost zero interest in journalistic integrity. No doubt, some reflect views of the left, but none have the power and influence of right-wing media.

Paul Waldman, co-author of “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy” wrote:

If you’re an average consumer of Fox News and conservative media, you typically can’t do much about the things you’re told to be angry about every day; the rage is an end in itself. 

A magazine from Manhattan’s Columbia University examined objectivity in journalism:

Pulitzer prize-winner Wesley Lowery said, “The act of journalism, no matter how much we may fetishize the idea of objectivity, requires a series, a pyramid, of subjective decision-making.”

For Lowery, those decisions — what stories to run, what resources to invest, who to quote — are limited by the people who make the decisions and the interests they serve. And in the history of American journalism, he said, those decisions have been made “almost exclusively by upper-class white men.”

Is Objectivity in Journalism Even Possible?

Murdoch wealth is C$27 billion. Like other media operators from the richest 0.1%, the owners of Fox News are more interested in expanding personal and corporate wealth than in fostering an accurately informed and educated public. An example follows.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo asked if Americans were better off than four years ago. She immediately provided viewers with guidance:

The obvious answer for all of us is no, we’re not better off. …Now, if you’re an illegal alien, you are better off today!

There could have been a more accurate response, if accuracy matter to Fox or Bartiromo:

• As of December 2023, employers had created more than 14 million jobs during the Biden administration. About the same number of jobs were lost during Trump’s time in the White House. In 2020, the Washington Post reported, “U.S. unemployment rate soars to 14.7 percent, the worst since the Depression era.”

• Gross domestic product, a measure of all of the goods and services produced in the USA, has grown about 22 percent since Biden took office. That’s compared with 14 percent growth during Trump’s presidency.

• In April 2020, the USA was into the first COVID-19 wave and 2,400 Americans were dying of the virus each day. No vaccine was widely available. Though some business interests wished to treat the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as relatively harmless, it was far worse that initially suspected. COVID-19 would ultimately kill 1.2 million in the USA and leave many more to suffer long-term health and psychological effects.

• Trump was suggesting the virus could be treated by hitting the body, inside or out, with powerful lights, and that injected or ingested bleach or disinfectants could knock the virus out in a minute.

Wesley Lowery, who is Black, says the banner of objectivity has served the status quo.

There’s not a single day in most cities that the local mainstream newspapers properly, fairly, accurately cover the Black community, the immigrant community, the gay community.

Journalism is limited by the people who make the decisions and the interests they serve. Owners act indirectly. There are implicit understandings with media executives and with those who write news stories or speak into microphones. Conservative media owners who fear diversity, equality, and a broadly informed public hire minions to protect their interests.

I recall a long-time talk-show host on CKNW saying, “No one has ever told me what to say.”

The simplest response was, “No, they didn’t have to.”