Fairness in Journalism

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)

 

New Song Man

“Art is disagreement.” — Bob Dylan

There is a contradiction built into the work of any artist who achieves success, especially those who perform. The artist wishes, needs to keep changing, while those celebrating the art really just want to celebrate the known. They want to hear the same old songs.

Such is the reality of Bob Dylan and his never-ending experiment. He hasn’t stopped changing or following his instincts, but his audiences have often had trouble keeping up.

I admire Dylan the writer, the storyteller who can spin a good tale within the limited parameters of a song. Well, not so limited in some cases — among my many favorites are his impossibly long, soulful ballads that seem like they could go on and on forever.

Just like the man.

But I’m in awe of him as an artist and his unending commitment to his art. Not to mention his sheer life force — he has kept writing and singing into his eighties. And he never stops breaking new ground because that is what he’s always really been all about.

Recommended Reading: “Art is Disagreement — A Complete Unknown and the myths of Bob Dylan” (The Nation)

HEADLINES:

• Trump is trying to change how the midterm elections are conducted (WP)

• Trump’s Shrinking Coalition (Atlantic)

• Trump’s list of targeted opponents grows longer with action against Powell and the Federal Reserve (AP)

• Minnesota and Illinois Sue Trump Administration Over ICE Deployments (NYT)

• Around 1,000 more immigration officers headed to Minneapolis, sources say, as tensions flare after fatal ICE shooting (CNN)

• They say they’re monitoring ICE arrests. Feds say they’re breaking the law. (WP)

• As Death Toll Surges in Iran, Leaders Take Tough Line Against Protesters (NYT)

• Trump weighs response to Iran crackdown, Tehran says communication open with US (Reuters)

• How Greenland Falls (Foreign Affairs)

• Trump won’t take Greenland by force, Mandelson says (BBC)

• The Purged (Atlantic)

• Young Americans are increasingly rejecting the Democratic and Republican parties, a new poll shows (AP)

• Federal Prosecutor Is Fired Amid Further Turmoil in Comey Case (NYT)

• Nearly 15,000 nurses go on strike at top New York City hospitals (Politico)

• Kelly Sues Pentagon Over Threats of Punishment From Hegseth (NYT)

• Trump said he might veto legislation to extend federal health insurance subsidies, injecting fresh uncertainty into a debate that has pitted congressional Republicans against Democrats and threatened to raise premiums for millions of Americans. [Reuters]

• Trump Says Civil Rights Led to White People Being ‘Very Badly Treated’ (NYT)

• ‘Hermès of durian’: The luxury fruit cashing in on China’s billion-dollar appetite (BBC)

• Bob Dylan, Trey Anastasio, John Mayer, and More Remember Bob Weir (Pitchfork)

• UK regulator Ofcom opens a formal investigation into X over CSAM scandal (Engadget)

• 10 Breakthrough Technologies (Technology Review)

• New York Seeks Ban on A.I.-Generated Images of Candidates (NYT)

• The Dangerous Paradox of A.I. Abundance (New Yorker)

• A red pixel in the snow: How AI solved the mystery of a missing mountaineer (BBC)

• Kristi Noem On Renée Good Murder: ‘We Will Find The Immigrant Who Did This’ (Onion)

Nutshell Summary

An unstable world requires steady leadership. Instead, the U.S. offers up Donald Trump.

That in a nutshell is what’s up globally, as the world teeters from a number of destabilizing developments in Iran, Greenland, Venezuela and beyond.

It would be inaccurate to blame Trump for everything going haywire in foreign affairs, but this much is true.

His hand is far from steady.

HEADLINES:

• Is the Iranian Regime About to Collapse? (Atlantic)

• ‘Massacre’ feared as Iran tries to crush protests; U.S. weighs military options (WP)

• Iran warns against potential US involvement as protesters defy crackdown (CNN)

• U.S. Launches Major Strikes on Islamic State Targets in Syria (NYT)

• Denmark Is Sick of Being Bullied by Trump (New Yorker)

• ‘Fateful moment’ for Denmark amid Trump threats to take over Greenland (Guardian)

• Trump says US will do something on Greenland ‘whether they like it or not’ (ABC)

• Trump tells Cuba to ‘make a deal, before it is too late’ (BBC)

• Federal Prosecutors Are Said to Have Opened Inquiry Into Fed Chair Powell (NYT)

• Anti-ICE, anti-war protests in Berkeley (Berkeleyside)

• America Watches One Shooting and Comes to Two Different Conclusions (WSJ)

• ICE Minneapolis shooting: Noem to deploy hundreds more federal agents to city (CNBC)

• Nationwide anti-ICE protests call for accountability after Renee Good’s death (NPR)

• Congress is debating the possible consequences for ICE and even Noem after Renee Good’s killing (AP)

• Congress Is Reversing Trump’s Steep Budget Cuts to Science (NYT)

• Smithsonian removes Trump impeachment text as it swaps his portrait (WP)

• “Mar-a-Lago face” hits its expiration date (Salon)

• Bob Weir, Grateful Dead co-founder, dies aged 78 (BBC)

• The Last Days of the Southern Drawl (Atlantic)

• Lamar wants to have children with his girlfriend. The problem? She’s entirely AI (Guardian)

• Ref Under Uprights Sheepishly Waits To Do ‘Good’ Sign Until Other Ref Does It First (Onion)

Remembering

Yesterday I wrote about breaking things. I could just as well have written about forgetting things, which is another of those irritations that often accompanies aging.

But instead I think I’ll focus on all the things we remember. People my age can summon images from the 1950s, when rock ‘n roll was young and so were we. We remember the 1970s, when our careers took off and we started having kids of our own.

We remember the 1990s, when many of us saw our lives blow up and we tried to start over. 

After that has been 30 years, frankly, of chaos. Personally, I was excited by the coming of the Internet. For an information junkie, it seemed like a dream come true.

But with the arrival of social media in the 2000s, that dream started to turn into a nightmare, in the worst-case scenario with the emergence of Donald Trump. He is the man who is breaking things and who wants us to forget all that is dear to us.

But we old folks, we remember.

We remember what matters.

(Note: Painting can help with stress. Maybe it can help with memory?)

HEADLINES:

• Is Donald Trump Creating the Conditions for Another World War? (New Yorker)

• ICE and Border Patrol shootings spark hundreds of weekend vigils and protests (Axios)

• Cell phone footage raises new questions about ICE agent’s tactics before fatal shooting (CNN)

• ICE Agent Jonathan Ross and the Killing of Renée Good: A Legal Breakdown of Potential Crimes (Substack)

• An ICE Killing Puts Minneapolis on the Brink (New Yorker)

• Judge Bars Trump From Withholding Election Funds to States (NYT)

• How the US could take over Greenland and the potential challenges (AP)

• Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats (Guardian)

• Trump’s Venezuela attack was a message for the rest of the world. (Reveal)

• Venezuela looks risky to Republicans (Reuters)

• Big Oil Knows That Trump’s Venezuela Plans Are Delusional (Atlantic)

• Exxon CEO calls Venezuela ‘uninvestable’ without significant changes (WP)

• Trump, Venezuela and the doctrine that wouldn’t die (Financial Times)

• Iran protests flare, Revolutionary Guards try to quell unrest (Reuters)

• Why the once loyal bazaar merchants are now protesting in Iran (Al Jazeera)

• How Trump’s tariffs are hitting business owners (Reuters)

• South Carolina reports 99 new measles cases (ABC)

• “We’re Too Close to the Debris” (ProPublica)

• Total legal immunity for dangerous pesticides? Stop Big Ag’s scheme now. (The Hill)

• We tried to get humanoid robots to do the laundry (Verge)

• AI models were given four weeks of therapy: the results worried researchers (Nature)

• Elon Musk’s A.I. Is Generating Sexualized Images of Real People, Fueling Outrage (NYT)

• Kristi Noem Calls Fatal Minneapolis Shooting Cathartic (Onion)

 

Broken Things

 

Note: The above is from 18 years ago, when I used to try and water paint if I was upset.

***

Yesterday afternoon, I broke something. I knocked it over and it cracked.

That’s the third time in a month that I’ve done something like that, which is extremely unusual for me. It’s disconcerting.

I told my daughter and she said, “That’s the sort of thing you’re supposed to keep track of. You know, being butter-fingered.”

She meant to write it down. She meant the Parkinson’s.

As I looked online for how much replacements for these three items would cost, it occurred to me that maybe I’ll just try to live without replacing them for a while. Maybe until next month at least.

Then I realized that I was much more upset than I should be. Why the deep sense of angst?

It’s not being butter-fingered, whatever that is. It’s not about the Parkinson’s. It’s not really about me at all. You only need to scan the following set of headlines to understand the root of my discontent and why it goes way beyond the things I have broken. 

As usual, Bob Dylan said it best.

Broken lines, broken strings
Broken threads, broken springs
Broken idols, broken heads
People sleeping in broken beds
Ain’t no use jiving, ain’t no use joking
Everything is broken.

HEADLINES:

• Why Donald Trump Wants Greenland (and Everything Else) (New Yorker)

• Trumps says US must own Greenland or China or Russia will (BBC)

• More than 1,000 events planned in US after ICE shootings in Minneapolis and Portland (Guardian)

• First the Shooting. Then the Lies. (Atlantic)

• How Renee Good ended up in a fatal encounter with ICE in Minneapolis (WP)

• Agents in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Have Fired at Vehicles at Least 10 Times (NYT)

• Trump administration lashes out at Minn. officials, takes over ICE shooting probe (WP)

• Hennepin County prosecutor calls on the public to share Renee Good shooting evidence with her office (AP)

• Federal Agents Are Violating the Rights of Americans (Atlantic)

• The U.S. Senate advanced a resolution blocking President Donald Trump's ability to use further military force against Venezuela without the approval of Congress, while the GOP-controlled House voted to pass a Democratic bill extending Obamacare subsidies. Both results indicate that President Donald Trump may be losing his mojo on Capitol Hill. [HuffPost]

• Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’ (NYT)

• Inside the frantic global race to find an escape route for Maduro (WP)

• US intercepts fifth sanctioned tanker as it exerts control over Venezuelan oil distribution (AP)

• Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile at Ukraine near the EU border, in what Kyiv called a new threat to European security that demanded a global response. (Reuters)

• House votes to subpoena journalist over report on Delta Force commander (WP)

• In Address, Newsom Lays Out a Vision for California and the Nation (NYT)

• I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well. (Atlantic)

• Growing protests sweep Iran as state TV warns of casualties (AP)

• Iran Is Cut Off From Internet as Protests Calling for Regime Change Intensify (NYT)

• As protests surge, the Iranian regime’s options are narrowing (Economist)

• Is Life a Game? (New Yorker)

• The Tastiest Meat Americans Can’t Buy (Atlantic)

• South Carolina measles outbreak surges past 300 cases (NBC)

• Dogs can rival toddlers when it comes to learning words, a new study found. (WP)

• Is Craigslist the Last Real Place on the Internet? (Wired)

• DeepSeek is reportedly close to releasing a flagship AI model that outperforms Claude and ChatGPT in coding. (Verge)

• ‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI (Nature)

• JD Vance Claims Renée Good Had No Authority To Be Alive In First Place (Onion)

The Rest of Us

Trump’s authoritarian playbook contains two chapters — domestic and international. His goal is to achieve and maintain as much power as he can for as long as he can. His chief articulator is Stephen Miller.

But things keep getting in Trump’s way. Things like the 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, who had just dropped her six-year-old off at school, only to run into an ICE operation on a snowy Minnesota street, perhaps by design. (I’m speculating here.)

Trump and Miller and the rest would have us believe that this woman was a left-wing terrorist wielding her car as a weapon when armed ICE agents blocked her way. But there is nothing radical about monitoring ICE raids — this is activity protected under the First Amendment.

Whatever brought Good to that place at that time, the video evidence contradicts the government’s story. In the videos, she looked like a frightened driver trying to extradite herself from the confrontation.

We have a free press. Now is the time for it to investigate this in full and demand accountability.

Trump will forge his path forward no matter what any of us say. He is an aggressor at home and an aggressor overseas. Aided by his henchman Miller, he will take this as far as he can.

The only thing that can stop him is a counter-force in the form of a broad-based resistance movement. Renee Nicole Gooddeserves to be remembered as a martyr for that movement.

HEADLINES:

• Federal agents shoot 2 in Portland, Ore. (NYT)

• JD Vance just sharply undercut the Trump team’s ICE shooting narrative (CNN)

• Minneapolis protesters vent their outrage after an ICE officer kills a woman (AP)

• Star Tribune identifies ICE agent who fatally shot woman in Minneapolis (MST)

• Walz Declares ‘Day Of Unity’ To Honor ICE Shooting Victim—More Federal Agents Head To Minnesota (Forbes)

• A Deadly Shooting in Minnesota (Atlantic)

• Transcript: Trump’s Agents Kill Citizen—Then Damning New Info Emerges (TNR)

• Videos contradict Trump administration account of ICE shooting in Minneapolis (NYT)

• The woman who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday in Minneapolis seemed "obviously scared" and was trying to leave, an eyewitness to the killing told HuffPost's Jessica Schulberg, undercutting President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's accounts of the incident. (HuffPost)

• Judge disqualifies US attorney in New York, tosses Letitia James subpoenas (Politico)

• Project 2025 creators pitch marriage bootcamp, two-children families (Axios)

• House takes step toward extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, overpowering GOP leadership (AP)

• Inside Donald Trump’s Attack on NASA’s Science Missions (Atlantic)

• Germany's president says the US is destroying the world order (Reuters)

• Senate votes to block Trump from future military strikes on Venezuela (CNBC)

• China’s massive oil-for-loan debts at risk in post-Maduro Venezuela (SCMP)

• Europe draws red line on Greenland after a year of trying to pacify Trump (WP)

• Senator Mark Kelly says that taking Greenland “would probably be the biggest mistake any president has made in the history of this country.” (Atlantic)

• Vance criticises Denmark and Europe’s handling of ‘critical’ Greenland (BBC)

• Shortages, cash handouts and killings: How Iran’s protests spread (CNN)

• Protests Spread in Iran, and Crackdowns Escalate (NYT)

• Trump said that the US would withdraw from dozens of international and U.N. entities, including a key climate treaty and a U.N. body that promotes gender equality and women's empowerment, because they "operate contrary to US national interests." (Reuters)

• Tech titans divided over whether to pay billionaire tax or flee California (Guardian)

• Defossilize our chemical world (Nature)

• Widely used pesticide linked to more than doubled Parkinson’s risk (MedicalXpress)

• How the internet changed politics — and our lives — forever (WP)

• The AI Power List (Business Insider)

• Google announces AI Overviews in Gmail search, experimental AI-organized inbox (ArsTechnica)

• The AI Shift: Agentic AI is coming for quantitative research (Financial Times)

• AI layoffs are looking more and more like corporate fiction that’s masking a darker reality, Oxford Economics suggests (Fortune)

• DHS Warns Any Action By Americans Will Be Treated As Domestic Terrorism (Onion)

A Shooting in Minneapolis

While we’ve lived through these types of incidents before —the George Floyd murder happened just four blocks away — yesterday’s shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an ICE agent feels like a turning point.

Almost immediately after the shooting, two completely opposite narratives about the tragedy emerged. Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem claimed it was an act of self-defense in the face of domestic terrorism, while the city’s mayor called that “bullshit” and described an innocent victim gunned down by the federal agent as she was attempting to leave the scene.

The Trump Administration’s massive crackdown on undocumented immigrants is leading to confrontations like these in cities across the country. Wednesday’s tragedy is a result of that crackdown. The reason that two opposing narratives emerged is because that is our political reality in Trump’s America.

Meanwhile, ICE agents are being deployed all over the country to round up our colleagues, neighbors and friends. They are armed and dangerous. Sometimes they kill people, like the mother of three who sang and loved poetry who had just dropped her six-year-old at school.

There are two opposing versions of what happened yesterday. Which one prevails portends the future of American democracy.

HEADLINES:

• Mother of 3 who loved to sing and write poetry shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis (CNN)

• Minnesota Officials Dispute Federal Account of Fatal ICE Shooting (NYT)

• A Familiar Story (Atlantic)

• Europe draws red line on Greenland after a year of trying to pacify Trump (WP)

• US seizes two ‘shadow fleet’ tankers linked to Venezuelan oil (BBC)

• Do Russia and China pose a national security threat to the US in Greenland? (Al Jazeera)

• Annexing Greenland Would Be a Strategic Catastrophe (Foreign Policy)

• As Venezuela buckles under Trump, Iran sees an uncomfortable parallel (CNN)

• Gabbard MIA on Venezuela operation amid tensions over Trump policy (WP)

• The Wrath of Stephen Miller (Atlantic)

• Trump tells Republicans: ‘You gotta win the midterms’ or ‘I’ll get impeached’ (AP)

• NATO ambassador: ‘We could be on the cusp’ of peace deal between Russia, Ukraine (The Hill)

• Iran army chief threatens preemptive attack over ‘rhetoric’ targeting country after Trump’s comments (AP)

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Announces It Will Cease Operations (NYT)

• Synthetic skin based on octopus biology promises uses in robotics (Financial Times)

• Venture Capitalists Predict Many AI Startups Will Get Weeded Out in 2026 (WSJ)

• RFK Jr. Scales Back Childhood Mortality Schedule (Onion)