A professional journalist is one who gets paid for his work as a journalist.
Yep
This is a consequence of human "binary" logic. In reality, there is a whole spectrum of viewpoints and interpretations of events. But it is the habit of thinking that reduces everything to only two opposites. People think in binary opposites. People unconsciously reduce everything to binary opposites. People sort information into binary opposites. People group themselves into opposing groups. Honestly, it's sad.
Binary logic gets a bad wrap.
As I move thru my day and I become tired or thirsty. I, me personally, prefer a logic system that enables me to determine easily with out to much internal debate if this or that spot would be a more comfortable place to set and rest.
Or more consequential to determine with out to much hesitancy or self doubt would this be a good place to get a clean drink of water.
“Choosing” is always a binary selection of either / or.
Is this benifitial to me?
Does it matter if I even have an opinion?
What will happen if I do nothing?
Or should I get involved and beat the shit out of that asshat?
It a matter of informed perspective and historical understanding.
A journalist must and will always enter a event with a bias. Be it cultural, historic, education.
But they must dig and look for information as yet not widely reported that can shed new light on a incident.
A historian who sifts through myriad of old text and letters and makes a novel discovery of different events that did infact impact each other. But till then no one had ever discovered that is a “journalist”. Their reporting a as yet unknown correlation that impacted events.
Even a war correspondent reporting on a battle does so with a predisposed set of opinions likely similar to their audience. If they didn’t then they would not have the historic and cultural concepts to successfully communicate what they are seeing to their consumer.
So being a journalist is not a scientific title or badge one is bequeathed and shoved off into the world and told go forth do good journalism.
If that was the case “webcams”. Would be the ultimate journalist.
Being a journalist is earned respect and trust that they are faithfully communicating a complex and chaotic situation in a manner I likely would agree with if I were there with them.
Well that’s a pretty damn small list and probably not one we would agreed upon amongst us.
So for me a journalist can absolutely interject their opinions into the reporting. I expect them to to at least some degree because it would not be human to do otherwise.
As far as tucker Carlson he’s not a journalist. But I think his type of platform can be valuable because he ask questions and challenges the accepted norm. Since when I’m america do challenging authority or dogma become a bad thing.
I don’t always agree with him but he critical to honest debate.
We can not honestly maintain a list of these four and no more are the only acceptable news sources. Because we’ve seen time and again they can be fallible.
You kinda have to “work”at the news consumption yourself.
www.lastwordonnothing.com
