I agree with your criticism, and I would like to see more integrity, and journalists state their political positions.

But you missed a major piece of the puzzle. You mentioned briefly that commercial influence is an issue. I think this is the the biggest issue, and journalist, and media organizations becoming more partisian will not stop this - it may just make it worse. In fact part of the push for a partisian press comes from advertisers who seek out a more narrow target market for their ads.

We need an independent press - one that is independent of powerful corporate interests.

Check out this Portal to Independent Media.

You can also get news from a diverse group of independent news organizations sent to you for free by subscribing to this alert service.

Alternet remains both progressive and independent, which is great - but the question is; will they keep their somewhat strick advertising rules, or will they let large and powerful interests bankroll this site? Sadly with their advertising of dating websites etc... it seems that they are traveling down a path that will lead them to be somewhat influenced by powerful interestes.

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I sometimes think we confuse the public and ourselves in defining objective as neutral.

A cancer researcher, for example, isn't "objective" (as in neutral) about cancer. A cancer researcher likely hates cancer, but uses objective methods in research to maintain credibility.

Our journalistic forebears thought the same way about using objective, scientific methods, but generally to prove a point.

Jacob Riis wasn't "objective" (as in neutral) about tenements. He hated tenements. But he used objective methods of observation, authentic description and new-fangled photography to lay out the facts in a convincing, credible way.

Or as Ed Murrow once defined it: Objectivity doesn't mean giving Hitler his say.

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Exactly. Well put.

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I always appreciate reading any material and the author admits to a bias at the point of the information that she/he reveals. One, among many, that follows this rule scrupulously is Eric Alterman.

Not many right-wingers do. They preach to their choirs since their choirs are the well-healed source of their book sales & national ratings.

Here is a secret--most of the right-wing patrons who buy the same swill endlessly, year after year to boost the appearance of their brethren in the best seller lists are corporations that buy in bulk and do NOT read the book. Why bother? They know already what is in them, they bought the author.

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Maintaining journalistic objectivity is both disingenuous and inauthentic, or so say I, Virgil "Peter" Moberg, assistant professor, journalism at Jacksonville University. Like world-dominating American publisher Rupert Murdoch, the previous century's advocacy journalists Henry Luce and William Randolph Hearst misinterpreted and misrepresented foreign policy in their powerful publications. Luce ignored Time Inc.'s editors and manipulated facts to advocate for his personal views. His worldview colored the content of his popular magazines. Hearst was believed by many to have initiated the Spanish-American War of 1898. What these historical examples show us is news media materials are constructed and distributed within a commercial and political environment. Making sense of the media business from an economic perspective implies that content must be attractive to audiences to ensure money flow, and executives must think about the relationship between content and audiences. The increasingly common practice of mixing genres of entertainment and hard news referred to as “soft” news is primarily storytelling, the primary function for of which is audience enjoyment. The imperatives of capitalism, consumerism, and commercialism tend to frame the so-called “liberal” journalist’s content in a politically and economically conservative framework of non-information. Information gathering can be lucrative, as well as politically advantageous. Press-government relations have followed different ideologies recently. Authoritarian-behaving members of the elite ruling class attempted to control some aspects of news and reporting, claiming to rescue the people of Iraq from a terrible past. Administration press-government relations were characterized by a utopian vision of helping to bring an idealized, free and democratic world closer. Libertarian press-government relations were characterized by the new media-driven blogosphere where a free marketplace of ideas occurred, and in which truth would supposedly win in a struggle for public approval over "truthiness." In the blogosphere, individuals were assumed to be capable of making their own meanings and sound decisions for themselves. Arguably a most robust discussion of war policy took place in the blogs, because the bloggers kept the "socially responsible" press off guard. Socially responsibility is characterized by a realistic assessment of mainstream news practices in which real competition of ideas would not occur without citizen action to encourage media corporations to offer a diversity of voices and ideas. So why isn’t the free press more independent and free of manipulation by its sources? The media managers on the contemporary scene sometimes know how the press works better than members of the press knows how it works themselves. Depending on how it is used, public relations may be the most dangerous weapon ever invented by humankind. Like other disciplines, public relations methods are often misused for deceptive or unscrupulous efforts to mislead people. In an age when the public forum has disappeared into spectacle, and where corporations and governments employ the same public relations techniques as psych ops, spectacle becomes a largely unchallenged substitute for a sense of participation in and belonging to a democratic community. Media construction of a spectator citizen hinges on the creating and selling of celebrity, of which mainstream news media is now a major producer and vendor. Show clowns like Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart will continue to blur the boundaries between news and entertainment. How do reporters themselves feel about the present state of journalism? Nearly eight-in-ten believe the criticism that the press pays too little attention to complex issues is valid (Pew Charitable Trust, 2004). Most journalists also accept as valid the criticism that the distinction between reporting and commentary has seriously eroded.

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