You also suggest that mere pursuit of objectivity doesn’t necessarily make the press do its job. I’m thinking of Isaiah Thomas, the partisan publisher of the Massachusetts Spy during the Revolutionary War, but also of Keith Olbermann and Bill Moyers, whom you cite as commendably passionate modern journalists.
In the introduction, I say that the First Amendment has no interest in a fair and balanced press. It protects the press’s ability to criticize the government. Over and over again, in the constitutional debates, both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists referred to the press as the bulwark of liberty and the scourge of tyrants.
We as a society expect the press to separate fact from opinion. But there is such a thing as truth, although this isn’t often mentioned these days. We expect the press to try to discern the truth from the welter of conflicting claims, but it is not the responsibility of the press to give some discussion of this side and some discussion of the other side. What the founders were trying to protect was the press’s ability — when there was any threat of despotism or tyranny — to stand up and say, “This shall not be. And these are the reasons.”
Related:
Fall back, Tales of the times, Chronicle of a death foretold, More 
- Fall back
If you cannot remember the past, so Santayana said, you’re condemned to repeat it. Watch trailers for this fall's new releases.
- Tales of the times
Here, listed alphabetically by author, are 10 of the best fiction and poetry books the Phoenix wrote about in 2006.
- Chronicle of a death foretold
What a difference a death makes.
- Decivilization and its discontents
“Sign yourself up for the reinvigoration of civilization and, while you’re at it, n+1 .” The bar was set. Civilization was at stake.
- Deadly art
It’s tempting to see two new biographies of Leni Riefenstahl and assume they’ll push the envelope, and expose the dirt about her personal life.
- Winter reads
Esteemed fiction writers, young stars, the Civil War, the ’60s, and the morass of contemporary geopolitics — it’s all here for reading during winter’s long, dark nights.
- Left out
I first heard about Stanley five years ago, from a firefighter up on Munjoy Hill.
- Off the press!
I can write the alternative press’s history — or one passably passionate version of it — because the institution’s trajectory matches my own.
- Dear Ketel One drinker
That weird Gothic lettering, the direct yet formal tone — what exactly are Ketel One Vodka’s ads supposed to signify?
- Dirty politics
The last resort of the true patriot is a fart joke.
- The Victory Day ‘confusement’
The late, great Professor Longhair used to describe a complicated situation as “the time when all the confusement comes in.”
- Less
Topics:
Media -- Dont Quote Me
, Politics, Culture and Lifestyle, Media, More
, Politics, Culture and Lifestyle, Media, Domestic Policy, Political Policy, Books, History, World History, Keith Olbermann, Media and Broadcasting Policy, Less
