Achi news desk-
ABC chairman Kim Williams has come out firing in his first week in the role, telling journalists that they must recognize the broadcaster’s statutory requirement to be impartial or walk out the door.
It’s often not that simple. It’s always been one of the hardest things to teach young people, but if they want to be a journalist they need to be impartial, park their opinions at the door, and embrace a skeptical mindset.
As an associate professor of journalism, I have always told my students that as a 17-year-old cadet at a country newspaper, I was taught by my editors not to join any kind of group (except the union), not to sign a petition no matter how innocent or worthy the cause is, and certainly not to discuss my politics or my religious beliefs with anyone.
I remember one editor singing to a class of young cadets to listen to the trial of the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, when the impartiality of the judge was challenged because he was a member of Amnesty International. We couldn’t even join Amnesty.
When I worked at the ABC from the early 1990s to the mid-2010s, I knew that the statutory requirement for ABC journalists is to be impartial and that our mission was to provide accurate, fair and impartial information with a wide range of views. The editorial standards required staff to “ensure that editorial decisions are not inappropriately influenced by political, sectional, commercial or personal interests”.
But in 2024, our journalism tutorial rooms are filled with young hopefuls who scoff at the idea that they shouldn’t bring themselves to a story. They are often encouraged in this view by younger academics, some of whom did not have the same newsroom indoctrination as me and, thanks to the broken news business model, may have had a career that never included time in a newsroom. mainstream news.
As a result, you can expect journalism graduates to bring youthful idealism, support for diversity and intersectionality to their storytelling. They know the value of their unique perspectives to news reporting. They argue, and to a certain extent they are right, that a reporter can bring much more to a story by acknowledging their connection to it, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist.
However, that freshness of ideas and recognition of a journalist’s opinion is the exact reason why there is such a clear gap in terms of age and culture now in the ABC. The national broadcaster has been trying to achieve its traditional public service broadcasting objective without a shared vision with its increasingly diverse staff—reporters who simply don’t believe impartiality can exist, at least not in the way older generations espoused. of journalists.
In our classrooms today, we teach the history of journalism so that all graduates understand that impartiality is a recent idea born of commercial imperatives, not truth-seekers. Over 100 years ago, it was easier for a newspaper to sell more copies if it was seen to be giving balanced coverage and not favoring one side. At the turn of the last century, impartiality was an exciting new commercially successful way of doing journalism – enthusiastically taken up by public service broadcasters in the BBC Reithian tradition.
But even those older and more experienced journalists who continue to espouse impartiality secretly acknowledge that it is a flawed ideal. We know our very decision to make a story, to choose interviewees, to use certain words and pictures, to choose one quote or topping over another – each one helps to lie or point the story in a certain direction.
We also know that, with the guidance of an editor, a reporter can turn a story into a better piece of work by acknowledging any personal bias, trying to balance that fairly and including where appropriate opposing views and presenting the story in a way that allows audiences. to come to their own point of view. It does not mean creating a false balance or inviting incorrect factual views; it means being fair and transparent to everyone.
In my classes, I spend much less time on impartiality and much more on fairness, timeliness and transparency. I tell my students to acknowledge (to themselves and their audiences) who they are and where their ideas might have come from. I encourage them to read and include all opinions, especially those they disagree with, to ensure they are questioned by the public.
In my mind, if we want better journalists, and journalism at the ABC and elsewhere, we need less false impartiality and more transparency and fairness. That’s what another old journo used to shout at me: the journalist’s job is to be honest, not neutral.
