SPJ backlash

Working journalists are coming to grips with inherent differences in ideology within newsrooms throughout America.  They are decades late to that realization, but it may be one early sign that journalism will not forever be “lame-stream.”

The difference between those who believe the myth of Marxist, Communist, Progressive utopia and those that believe in the proven history of freedom, limited government, free enterprise, capitalism and equality in application of law and government policy is important.  The first is a delusional radical.  The second is a patriot supporting the Constitution of the United States of America.  The differences in how each report the same news is striking and it matters both in local and national newsrooms.

In Tulsa on the day Christians celebrate the birth of their savior, the Tulsa World dammed capitalism.  Apparently they, in the collective (pun intended), support Communism (the greatest killer of humans in the history of the planet).  That Christmas Day editorial was represented as the official position of the editorial staff of the locally owned paper.  Click here to read Tulsa Today’s demand for an apology from the Tulsa World with a link to the original offending editorial.

The irony of a newspaper which depends on capitalism’s advertising to survive and which doubles in size to profit from each and every holiday is almost too obvious to mention.

January 1, Matthew Boyle of The Daily Caller took the Society of Professional Journalists to task for a campaign to forbid the use of the term “illegal immigrant.”  Boyle writes:

“When I reported that the Diversity Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists was launching a campaign against using the term “illegal immigrant,” I was disappointed that the role models I looked up to as a 23-year-old reporter were advocating a political position, and using their power of the press to do it.

“Journalism is supposed to be about telling the truth. In its code of ethics, SPJ pushes for journalists to “seek truth and report it.” SPJ also says journalists should balance seeking truth with “minimizing harm,” though, and that’s where journalists with liberal beliefs, at least in some circles, go wrong. The “minimize harm” clause is supposed to be “balanced” with the “seek truth and report it” clause of SPJ’s code of ethics, but journalists often will make a case for weakening truth to minimize harm.

Click here to read the entire analysis on The Daily Caller.