How can you be a patriot and a journalist?

The question is from Bob Franken of CNN, recounted in a book by Alan Feuer and quoted by Jay Rosen. A reply might be, "How can you be a human being and a journalist?"

The problem is english, as in the game of pool. In pursuit of objectivity, they try to suppress their own feelings, but by doing that they over correct, losing contact with their American audience. Is Bob Franken reporting to the Chinese? If he thinks that, he's fooling himself, because the Chinese will note his nationality and adjust what he says accordingly, ending up with a false impression of how Americans see events. If he's reporting to the Brits or Aussies, even with the same language the effect is the same, maybe even exacerbated. The Canadians wouldn't necessarily notice that his accent is different, but they're certainly not going to think he's a Canadian. Same effect.

People aren't used to dealing with people who merely report the facts impartially. As we get to know others, we learn how to interpret what they say to us by identifying their biases and attitudes. We all build mosaics of the world from all the sources available to us. Journalists seem to think that we don't expect and can't deal with bias. To really correct for that is impossible. That's why Democrat callers to C-Span, and Eric Alterman, think that the media are too conservative, why Republican callers think it's slanted to the left.

Rosen gets that much, but he still asks what the press should do to get it right. The answer I would give him is that they need to emphasize to their reporters to tell it straight as they see it, and then actively seek diversity. The problem is that its hard to get diversity when you hire from journalism schools which have no diversity themselves. If the news directors and editors would get rid of the memes about their constitutional role, holding power accountable, being a "Citizen of the World" and all the rest of the stuff that they think is noble but which just looks arrogant and snotty to their audiences, and just focus on getting the facts straight and giving their audience some credit for being able to think without being lead by the nose to the conclusions you as a reporter think they should reach--if they would focus on that, they'd have much more respect and trust from their audiences and readers. What's sad is that they have a view of the public they claim to serve that's insulting and bigoted. Once you decide that it is up to you, not your customers, to decide what they need, you're ripe for losing your market, and that is what's happening now. The liberal media will keep their liberal audience, but they shouldn't wonder that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh flourish by serving markets they have ignored for years as too dumb to know what to think about things.