Here's an interesting Twitter chat between veteran ITN newsreader Alastair Steward and Dame Helena Morrissey:
Alastair Stewart: "We do not tell you want to think. We show you how the world is and leave you to decide". A quote used to head-line a Giles Coren restaurant review in The Times magazine of 22/12/19.It also happens to sums-up pretty well everything I believe in about broadcast journalism.
Helena Morrissey: I’d prefer a quote saying “we show you how WE THINK the world is and leave you to decide”. Showing “us” what (you think) (not you Alastair!) the world is THE problem. It is exactly why those doing the showing us are losing. And will continue to fail.
Alastair Stewart: Interesting. The failures, in my book, are those who pretend to report facts, as they see them, then sprinkle them with their own partisan political observations. They are the 'losers' and they are 'losing' audiences to TV news.
Helena Morrissey: The key is “as they see them”. Because how they see is also a “sprinkling”. We all have biases & filters but too often media can’t imagine they have them too! They don’t realise they are not reporting facts. And “facts” are not always real or true. Accepting this is a good start!
Alastair Stewart: The ones I abhor are those who know, all too well, they have their biases and think they can camouflage them as 'reportage', with the addition of just a little 'quelque chose' of their own spin. They take us as fools. We are not.
