{"id":187,"date":"2009-09-25T10:33:06","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T10:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/friday-failure-journalists-who-wont-vote.html"},"modified":"2009-09-25T10:33:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-25T10:33:06","slug":"friday-failure-journalists-who-wont-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/friday-failure-journalists-who-wont-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"Friday Failure: Journalists Who Won’t Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
Most of us have a love\/hate
\nrelationship with the media…sometimes we love it, sometimes we hate it (and
\nsometimes I love to hate how I’m a part of it). Still, one of the fundamentals
\nof most democratic societies are the voices that speak to us under the banner of
\nthe free press, and I’d maintain that the majority of us have some basic faith
\nin the institution.<\/font><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span> <\/div>\n
At least I do (have a bit of faith),
\nso I was disappointed when I found out a friendly acquaintance of mine didn’t
\nvote. Refused to vote. Now, that’s bad enough — what pushed me over the edge
\nwas the fact that she is a political reporter! She wasn’t only failing in her
\nduty as a citizen (in my opinion), she was falling down on her
\njob<\/i>.<\/font><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span> <\/div>\n
However, she defended her decision
\nnot to vote, saying that this was the only way for her to maintain her
\ncredibility and write from an unbiased viewpoint.  <\/font><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span> <\/div>\n
No offense to her ( and I might lose a
\nfriendly acquaintance if she’s reading this), but I call B.S. on that defense.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span> <\/div>\n
Objective reporting is at the core of
\njournalism, and responsible journalists will go to their grave writing in this
\nmanner in order to protect their Holy Grail of credibility. But objectivity does not come from removing yourself from the daily lives of the masses, it comes with a certain determination and mindset. Being a journalist does not<\/b> mean you get a free pass from life<\/i>. <\/p>\n

I would argue that
\nevery journalist must learn and perfect the art of objectivity, despite their
\npersonal beliefs and ideals. Sure, these days it’s a skill often found lacking in mainstream media outlets — depending on your political views, you can look to CNN or
\nFox News as an example.  Still, objectivity is something to strive for as a professional journalist , regardless of your life as a private
\ncitizen.<\/font>
<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span> <\/div>\n
What do you think? Should journalists
\nbe excused from such activities as voting in order to maintain their
\ncredibility? Or is that just an easy (and lazy) excuse?<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of us have a love\/hate relationship with the media…sometimes we love it, sometimes we hate it (and sometimes I love to hate how I’m a part of it). Still, one of the fundamentals of most democratic societies are the voices that speak to us under the banner of the free press, and I’d maintain…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,28,39,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-media-ethics","category-personal-responsibility","category-political-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nFriday Failure: Journalists Who Won't Vote - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/friday-failure-journalists-who-wont-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday Failure: Journalists Who Won't Vote - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most of us have a love\/hate relationship with the media…sometimes we love it, sometimes we hate it (and sometimes I love to hate how I’m a part of it). 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}