Young Voices: Unbiased news
Bending news to ideology outrageous
Guest column Opinion by Nicole Cassese
As a new journalism student at the University of Arizona, I have thus far been taught that all news reported should be fair, accurate, objective and without bias.
I recently rented the 2004 documentary "Out-Foxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." As a budding journalist, I was sincerely shocked by what I saw.
Now, we should not believe everything we hear about everyone, but this documentary seemed convincing, whether taken in context or not. The documentary showed me things that I refuse to believe are true journalism - everything I never want to be.
The movie helped me to separate my thoughts about what news is and how it should be presented to the public. My thoughts represented everything the professors of journalism stand for and have taught me thus far.
The documentary showed Fox News as a sad excuse for journalism. It was shown as an obvious right-wing news outlet in the film, and I processed my thoughts on how news should be unbiased - and therefore I should not be able to discern the views of the anchors and reporters.
According to the documentary, every morning the Fox News reporters receive memos from the heads of the company telling them what they should and should not report on for the day.
That's not something I would follow or stand for. It's not fair journalism to pick and choose what the people get to know.
Now, we have never watched Fox News in my home, therefore I never really thought about how people can corrupt such a pure institution as the news. How can facts of life be messed with and become opinionated?
I always assumed that news was straightforward and free of personal, swaying opinions. I promise to deliver real news, so that viewers can form their own opinions, once presented with all the facts.
After watching the film, I began to inspect news stations closely. I usually watch CNN, ABC News and the local station news, and they have their stuff down.
I haven't caught any personal opinion, and that's what I like. I would be pretty bummed if I learned I was in training to become a journalist, and then once the real world hit, I would be some station's pet to report news subjectively.
If I stick with my major (fingers crossed) and ever become a reporter, I can assure you this, I will stay true to what journalism really is.
It shall be news free of personal opinion (unless you happen to find me in this section, as you do now). All facts presented to the people, as they should be. No lies or misconception of the way things really are because your company is led by some right-wing extremist.
Real news - something Fox doesn't seem to know anything about.
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