Archive for the ‘politics’ tag
More on political ‘fact-checking’
The question has become: Has the drum-beat of fact-checks blended into white noise, letting significant misstatements and deceptions get lost in the mix? More from Politico
The ‘ritual’ of objectivity and the lack of truth in political reporting
In her article “Objectivity as Strategic Ritual” Gaye Tuchman discusses journalistic ‘objectivity’ as a ritual, a “routine procedure which has relatively little or only tangential relevance to the end sought” (661). Presumably, that end sought is the truth. But if it were, why is there such a perliferation of “fact-checking” websites in this election cycle, some which are run by journalism organizations who presumably are presenting truthful accounts of the campaigns through their reporting?
That’s because the right-wing has mounted an extremely successful campaign against the ‘liberal media elite,’ so much so that more than ever journalists are falling over themselves to be “objective.” This doesn’t mean truthful, but rather means giving equal weight to both sides of the debate with “little or only tangential relevance” to the truth. Thus, the rise of the truth seeking website to take it’s place, often using different reporters to be arbiters of the truth, a different vehicle and format to publish its conclusions, insulating the reporters from charges that they too are part of the ‘media elite.’
The journalism organizations invested in this outside enterprise are also careful to pick relatively non-controversial “facts” (“1.3-million people in America make their living off eBay”) and almost always use half-rulings (mostly true, half true, barely true) to hedge their bets and cushion their blows. What I would be curious to study, is that after one of this journalism organizations does rule on a fact, does that conclusion make its way into its traditional reporting, or are readers still left with a safe “he said/she said account”?
Regardless, I think journalism organizations would be far better served to focus on truthful reporting throughout their enterprise than to focus on these mostly separate factual enterprises. Even as a frequent consumer of allegedly serious political reporting, I’ve been left with little factual information to base my vote on, being left instead as have most voters to mainly base their vote on party affiliation and whether or not one “likes” a candidate, eroding the usefulness of political journalism in our civic lives.