re: #55 Citizen K

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Where someone decides that “actually, hyper biased news is the best and most truthful reporting and trying to have actual objectivity instead of false balance is giving yourself up to a ‘neutral elite’!’

We are doomed as long as people don’t see that this meme is utter bullshit. You can’t call republicans racist in a newspaper marketed to voters of both sides.

— Henry Porter (@HenryPorters) July 15, 2019

The idea of unbiased, neutral news media is actually a fairly recent innovation in the history of journalism. It dates from the formation of the big wire services, beginning with Reuters in 1851. They fed news to a variety of outlets, with many different points of view, and as neutral a stance as possible was a necessity for marketing the service. Before then, and in fact until well into the 20th century, newspapers had a strong editorial orientation that they often proclaimed from the masthead.