Jarred Simmons: Reporters should just report, not tell us how to think

The at times hysterical reporting by the televised, online and print media is becoming more and more not about who would be the best candidate for the future of the country, but rather who’s the most unfit.

Both candidates have made the case whose most unfit. Depending on which side of the political aisle the reporter is on, the facts then get placed aside and opinion reporting sets in and the audience, as the press now calls its readers, find each candidate getting vilified instead of vetted.

As an example, the recent opinion/analysis by Jim Rutenberg, media editor of the New York Times, tried to explain the difficultites of covering Donald Trump “Trump is testing the norms of objectivity in journalism,” the writer insisted. “If you believe Trump is dangerous, you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career. Your reporting must move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional.”

But to suggest journalists have an obligation to display prejudicial views against a political candidate is not objective; just the facts ma’am’.

This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Jarred Simmons: Reporters should just report, not tell us how to think."