The problem is that treating all arguments as equal gives undue credance to fringe groups. Like when a climate denier gets equal air time to an actual climate scientist, its portrayed as giving both sides an equal hearing but in reality a representative interview would be more like 1 climate denier and 100 climate scientists.
The problem is that treating all arguments as equal gives undue credance to fringe groups.
You’re conflating objectivity with false balance. the person above said “Report verifiable facts, without opinion.” That can be done while avoiding false-balance, especially if one side does not align with the facts (as trump rarely does).
Even just “report[ing] verifiable facts” entails opinion in terms of deciding which facts are important to report. Everything has its own perspective; there’s no way around it.
Your argument implies some sort of authority in news reporting. My personal feeling is that this is precisely what is wrong with today’s news reporting (specifically in the United States). It is their job to communicate what occurred. That’s it. They should not assert some sort of authority to tell you how you should feel about it.
Quick example:
“Prosecutors allege that the defendant robbed the liquor store. They cite a, b, and c as evidence.”
“Defendant claims the police are framing him and have planted evidence.”
That isn’t treating both arguments as equal. It’s simply stating what occurred. You can verify that both things were said. It will never be perfect, of course, but I think they should adhere as closely to this as possible.
Edit:
Meant to add that in my world the climate denier would have never been given air time, because it’s been verified false. I think we are somewhat pointing out the same problem from two different views.
The problem is that treating all arguments as equal gives undue credance to fringe groups. Like when a climate denier gets equal air time to an actual climate scientist, its portrayed as giving both sides an equal hearing but in reality a representative interview would be more like 1 climate denier and 100 climate scientists.
You’re conflating objectivity with false balance. the person above said “Report verifiable facts, without opinion.” That can be done while avoiding false-balance, especially if one side does not align with the facts (as trump rarely does).
Even just “report[ing] verifiable facts” entails opinion in terms of deciding which facts are important to report. Everything has its own perspective; there’s no way around it.
Your argument implies some sort of authority in news reporting. My personal feeling is that this is precisely what is wrong with today’s news reporting (specifically in the United States). It is their job to communicate what occurred. That’s it. They should not assert some sort of authority to tell you how you should feel about it.
Quick example: “Prosecutors allege that the defendant robbed the liquor store. They cite a, b, and c as evidence.” “Defendant claims the police are framing him and have planted evidence.”
That isn’t treating both arguments as equal. It’s simply stating what occurred. You can verify that both things were said. It will never be perfect, of course, but I think they should adhere as closely to this as possible.
Edit: Meant to add that in my world the climate denier would have never been given air time, because it’s been verified false. I think we are somewhat pointing out the same problem from two different views.