Some excellent points about journalistic objectivity from Froomkin and Atrios -
“And it’s the focus on maximizing newspaper circulation that drove us to create the notion of ‘objectivity’” – Froomkin
“…it’s nice seeing someone acknowledge that much of what journalists perceive as the standards of their profession, the ‘objectivity,’ was a business choice.” – Atrios
While in college I wrote my senior capstone paper on changing stereotypes in editorial cartoons. What I learned was that stereotyped images didn’t change because of the enlightened attitudes of journalists, those images changed because publishers wanted to increase their circulation.
Images of the stereotype Irish troglodyte were removed because newspapers were moving into Irish neighborhoods. Similarly with stereotyped images of Blacks and Jews.
At some point, however, journalists began believing the myth that they were somehow maintaining some high-minded objective analysis, no matter how many studies pointed out that their vaunted objectivity didn’t exist.
