The radical left has been making some outrageous demands lately, and it needs to be called out. We recently saw Washington Post editor Leonard Downie Jr. call for journalism to move beyond objectivity, which was met with shock.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who was a guest on Real Time With Bill Maher, responded to this with a bold statement: “if this were to become the standard, it would not only be the end of serious journalism in the United States, but the end of the United States itself.”
Mind you, Stephens was is a staunch liberal himself, or was. This may be the thing that wakes him up.
It’s outrageous that the left would even suggest throwing out decades of journalistic integrity and standards, just to push their political agenda. And what’s worse is that they expect us to throw out everything created by a white person, as if being white somehow cancels out the importance of the contributions made. It’s ridiculous. Einstein’s theory of relativity still holds, regardless of the fact that he was white.
This is yet another example of how the left is trying to censor and control what we hear and see. They want to shut down any opinion that doesn’t agree with theirs, and they’re willing to go to extreme lengths to do so. It’s time to draw the line and call out the hypocrisy.
It’s up to journalists to remain impartial and objective in their reporting, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Journalism shouldn’t be used as a tool to push a political agenda. It’s time for us to stand up for the truth and report on it objectively, despite the current political climate. We need to take a stand against censorship and for freedom of speech.
If we don’t, it could spell disaster for our country. We can’t allow the radical left to win. We must fight for the truth and for freedom of speech. It’s up to us to be the voice of reason in this fight. Let’s make sure that our voices are heard.
Transcript
BILL MAHER: I have a newspaper man here today, so I thought I would ask a little bit about what’s going on in journalism because I saw something that I thought was rather groundbreaking in the Washington Post, your competitor over there from The New York Times, Leonard Downey, he used to be, I think, the executive editor there. Okay, he wrote an editorial about objectivity which I thought again was, kind of, a sea change.
I mean, objectivity, I remember in the past always was something that was, of course, impossible to obtain in journalism but I never remember anybody saying we’re not trying. If you got accused of not being objective they would say “well, we’re humans, of course, we are, we try, we get as close as we can, we can’t help it if some bleeds in.”
Now apparently, new journalism is we don’t even try and we’re not trying and we don’t think that is a goal. He said the reason he said “the standard was dictated” — talking about objectivity — “over decades by male editors and predominately white newsrooms.”
So, that may be, I’m sure true, but– so the concept of objectivity should go? Are we not throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
BRET STEPHENS: If he were to get his way that would be not just the end of any serious journalism in the United States, I think it would be the end of the United States.
MAHER: What? Wow. That’s dramatic.
STEPHENS: I mean this is Trump’s– let me explain for a second what I mean. Hang on a second—
RUBEN GALLEGO: Alright, I’m listening.
STEPHENS: This is Trump’s America because what it means is truth is whatever you claim it is. Truth is whatever your lived experience is, truth is—
MAHER: Right.
STEPHENS: — whatever your narrative is. No, actually, that’s not the truth and newspapers exist to at least seek a standard of accuracy and truthfulness that is not what Ruben or Bill or any of you in the audience happen to think it is.
I thought that was the battle we spent six years fighting the Trump Administration about. That you couldn’t just say it was true, that you sold in 90 percent of your condominiums and your fabulous new development—
MAHER: Right.
STEPHENS: — even if it wasn’t true. So, this is, I mean, what he’s talking about is a trend in newsrooms which I think is incredibly damaging and all of this business “Well, you know, it was white guys who got on the bandwagon of objectivity,” what exactly does that mean?
So, anything that a white guy happened to have come up with at some point in time is therefore suspect “let’s throw out the polio vaccine because it was a pair of white guys who came up with it.”
MAHER: It is silly.
STEPHENS: How about Einstein’s theory of relatively no longer holds because Einstein was manifestly white?