How do reporters stay objective?
The answer is complicated. One answer is that we don’t, but that is hardly the end of the story.
In the course of reporting, we learn so much about the people we cover that it is almost inevitable that we develop what seems like a bias for or against them.
Given that, how do we keep our coverage fair in spite of this? Think of it like when you are asked to serve on a jury. If you have any bias toward the person on trial, you’re asked to put that aside and only take the facts as they are proved into account when making your judgment.
In fully staffed newsrooms, reporters had systems in place to counteract any prejudicial statements that make their way into the early drafts of articles. Our colleagues, editors and fact checkers — and in big stores, our lawyers — acted collectively as devil’s advocates to test and retest our assumptions and conclusions.
Unfortunately, much of what I’m describing is from the newsrooms of the past, which may no longer exist in many of today’s media organizations after waves of layoffs, buyouts and corporate takeovers.
For the latest on the state of the news media , read “Publishers prepare to be “squeezed” by AI and creators in 2026.” (Nieman)
But with or without those layers of support, the burden remains on every journalist to produce fair and balanced stories and above all else to get it right.
Because the truth is our only and last defense.
Traditionally, in newspapers, there was a strict line between the reporting we did in news coverage and the opinions expressed on the editorial page.
One attempt to bridge this gap was to have the beat writers produce analysis pieces, which bridged the gap between reporting and opinion and were traditional journalism’s answer to the objectivity problem.
Though the distinction between “analysis” and “opinion” was largely fictional, it was a useful fiction that newspapers employed successfully for many years.
Meanwhile, the ownership of the newspaper often held different opinions and loyalties on the major topics of coverage from the reporters and editors who provided that coverage on a day-in, day-out basis.
This could lead to tension on between the news staff and those in charge of the editorial pages. Anyone who ever visited the nearest bar to a big-city newspaper office knows exactly what I’m talking about.
(This is an updated excerpt from lectures I gave at various universities over many years.)
HEADLINES:
Six Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow (NYT)
None of This Should Have Happened (Atlantic)
Tensions flare in Minnesota as protesters and federal agents repeatedly square off (AP)
Anti-ICE Protests Are Spreading Beyond Big Cities, to Small-Town America (Time)
Canada’s armed forces are planning for threats from America (Economist)
Greenland and Denmark unite against US advances before White House talks (Guardian)
House Republican introduces bill to let Trump annex Greenland (Axios)
Trump briefed on military, cyber, psychological options for Iran, sources say (CBS)
Trump announces 25 percent tariff on countries that trade with Iran (WP)
An Iranian parliamentarian said the government will face even bigger protests unless it addresses people’s grievances, after more than two weeks of nationwide demonstrations. Officials say around 2,000 people have been killed in the unrest. (Reuters)
Oil prices rise 3% after Trump cancels meetings with Iran, tells protesters help is on the way (CNBC)
U.S. plane used in boat strike was made to look like civilian aircraft (WP)
Food Prices Were Stubbornly High Last Year (NYT)
Supreme Court hears arguments in blockbuster cases challenging transgender sports bans (CNN)
Supreme Court seems likely to uphold state bans on transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports (AP)
How the Supreme Court Broke Congress (Atlantic)
Facing Contempt Threat, Clintons Refuse to Testify in Epstein Inquiry (NYT)
Trump swings big at credit cards (Business Insider)
Wall Street CEOs warn Trump: Stop attacking the Fed and credit card industry (AP)
Trump has repeatedly grumbled to aides in recent weeks that Attorney General Pam Bondi has been "weak" and "ineffective" at imposing his agenda, according to the Wall Street Journal. [HuffPost]
Russian forces launched the year’s most intense wave of missile attacks on Ukraine, killing four people and injuring several others, while emergency power cuts were imposed in Kyiv after damage to infrastructure. (Reuters)
China’s AI and robotics push isn’t enough to kickstart its economy, leaving growth more exposed to trade risks (CNBC)
How IVF has led to a record number of single moms in their 40s (NPR)
Behind the Curtain: 20 years of media revolution (Axios)
A Clinical Trial Nightmare (Science)
Protests draw hundreds in Berkeley, Richmond against shooting of Renee Good, Venezuelan involvement (Daily Cal)
Amid federal threats, University of California gets ‘critical’ support in Newsom’s proposed budget (Berkeleyside)
Vanderbilt University to take over California College of the Arts campus in San Francisco (SFC)
California College of the Arts announces an agreement with Vanderbilt University. (CCA)
Which countries are adopting AI the fastest? (Economist)
Publishers prepare to be “squeezed” by AI and creators in 2026 (Nieman)
Large language models don’t “learn”—they copy. And that could change everything for the tech industry. (Atlantic)
Pentagon is embracing Musk’s Grok AI chatbot as it draws global outcry over sexualized fake images (AP)
Elon Musk’s Alternate Grok Reality (Mother Jones)
Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI (VentureBeat)
Apple Teams Up With Google for A.I. in Its Products (NYT)
GOP Adds ‘ICE Kills Everyone’ Pillar To 2026 Platform (Onion)