Forbes – NPR’s Seven Secrets of Feigning Objectivity

Most media outlets try, but few can top NPR’s enduring success

Fox News declares itself fair and balanced. MSNBC leans forward. The Gray Lady promises All the News that’s Fit to Print. Yes, most media organizations work hard to convince their audience that they cover every angle of every story in pursuit of objectivity. Of course, most modern professional journalists would dismiss the notion that there’s such a thing as “objectivity,” and insist that all we can strive for is “balance.”

Yet, the ideal of news organizations as dispassionate observers persists. And few have been as successful at perpetuating it as National Public Radio (NPR). How do they do it? Through what I call the Seven Secrets of Feigning Objectivity:

1) Topic Selection
2) Guest Selection
3) Framing
4) Questions Asked
5) Questions Not Asked
6) Editing
7) Civility

To read the rest of the column in Forbes click here.