objectivity

They did all this in neutral editorial voices, clearly meant to promote the appearance of objectivity; they showed their work to make clear that their judgments weren’t just matters of opinion.

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and others have speculated that one way to regain the trust of skeptical conservatives and combat their charges of mainstream-media bias is for journalistic outlets to work even harder to promote the appearance of objectivity.

But if the appearance of extreme objectivity is all that it takes to bridge the journalism trust gap and appease the Trumpist right, then why haven’t the various stand-alone fact-checking platforms already unlocked this achievement?

Reporters laboring under a mandate of objectivity can sometimes feel pressured to pretend that America’s two main political parties share a baseline legitimacy.

Pointing out these true things does not count as media bias—and, conversely, pretending that the Trumpist right is normal does not count as objectivity.