By MARTIN BARON for The Washington Post: “…First, a dictionary definition of objectivity. This is from Merriam-Wester: ‘expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations.’
“That’s of some, but limited, help in understanding the idea. Let me suggest thinking about objectivity in the context of other professions. Because as journalists, and as citizens, we routinely expect objectivity from professionals of every sort.
‘We want objective judges. We want objective juries. We want front-line police officers to be objective when they make arrests and detectives to be objective in conducting investigations. …
“We want doctors to be objective in their diagnoses of the medical conditions of their patients. We certainly don’t want them recommending treatments based on hunches or superficial, subjective judgments about their patients. …”
READ Martin Baron’s full Opinion as published by The Washington Post here: We want objective judges and doctors. Why not journalists, too?
Martin Baron was Executive editor of The Post from January 2013 – February 2021. This essay is adapted from a speech he gave on March 16 as part of the Richman Fellowship at Brandeis University.