“As a culture that purportedly appreciates truth and honesty, the old world of quality journalism seems more important than ever”

We often hear that we’re living in a new age of journalism, that Millennials and the internet no longer need the standards and rules that defined a great generation of reporters. Calling themselves “content providers”, new information purveyors eschew the ethical and professional concerns that help underlie so much of modern journalism.

As a culture that purportedly appreciates truth and honesty, the old world of quality journalism seems more important than ever. At the outset, it’s important to acknowledge the myth of objectivity in journalism. To be sure, fair and balanced is not an achievable human reality. Everyone has a bias, even if it only manifests in the form of personal preference. Subjectivity, opinion, and point of view all have their place in reporting. At the end, there is but one goal: the truth. As a reporter, you have to nail your facts.

This is where quality content is an insufficient self-justification.

Andy Crouch, “Full Disclosure”, Beer Advocate (August 2015), 20.