Objectivity: Going the Way of the Greek Gods

One of the main rules of journalism is reporters need to be objective. From the moment a journalism student sets foot into their first journalism class, it is a lesson repeated over and over and over and over again. Journalism programs have even created semester-long classes about media law and freedom of the press, which are really just extended lessons on why journalists need to be objective and to make clear the implications of not being objective.

I have never had to grapple with my objectivity before. I can honestly say that, as a journalist, I have always made an effort to be objective and to provide both sides in every story I write. Sometimes I have to settle for less than I want, such as when a candidate would not return my phone calls for an interview, so instead I just made sure I included quotes and information from people from his party in my article.

In the interest of transparency, I have a confession: this past few months, covering the border, I have started to grapple with my objectivity. I don't even know that I am having a particular pull in one direction, but more, the border is a subject so vast and so multi-faceted with so many possible scenarios and so may opinions about how to "fix" it, that with every new bit of information I hear and every person I meet and every new "solution" or opinion I hear, my opinion changes. But I always have an opinion.

I am finding that I have to work harder now to be provide an objective voice in my stories. There have honestly been times when I have thought to myself, "I know that I need to put in some quotes from this person/group, but what they're saying is so ridiculous and charged and goes against what I think, I don't know that I want to put it in there." I always do interview the person/group and I always give them the same amount of coverage in my article as everyone else, but I still have that hesitation.

At the beginning of the semester, we had a guest speaker who spoke about the "myth of objectivity" and pretty much said that no one was truly objective. I had mixed feelings on his declaration: yes, I do have my own beliefs and opinions, which I have had for years, but no, I disagree with the idea that because of those beliefs, I cannot be truly objective. As a journalist, you have to step back from the story to look at the story as a whole; I thought that just by stepping back, you automatically become objective, that you can make the concerted effort to be objective.

This semester, I have learned that objectivity is not as easy as that.

I think my best example of my change came last week, as we were covering the St. Andrews Clinic, a clinic on the U.S. side of the border that provides free healthcare to people from the Mexican side of the border.

I covered the speech therapy classes. I tried to be a fly on the wall, with my two cameras and notepad. With most of the children, I was successful; they barely looked at me much less tried actually tried to interact with me. However, there was one little boy who kept mugging for the cameras and trying to sign to me and kept showing me what he was doing.

I found out that one of the best tools for helping kids learn to speak was a PC, and that this little boy didn't have one. I want to buy him one.

And it freaks me out.

I am a journalist, and should not feel like that about one of my subjects. I understand that what I am feeling are human emotions and that even journalists have feelings, and that this is normal.

But I am still freaked out.

I thought that I was objective and as a journalist I could rise above this. I think that, as a journalist, I have to rise above it and I am working really hard. I have come to grips with the fact that I cannot buy this kid a computer, and I am working on just viewing him as another subject. And I am coming to grips with the fact that I am not an objective journalist, especially when it comes to the border. It's a foreign feeling and it's hard.

I hope, though, that in the long run the push to make my stories completely free of any indication of my personal biases will make me a better journalist. I hope.