TEXT B The newspaper must provide
for the reader the facts; unalloyed, unbiased, objectively selected facts.
However, in these days of complex news it must provide more; it must supply
interpretation, the meaning of the facts. This is the most important assignment
confronting American journalism--to make clear to the reader the problems of the
day, to make international news as understandable as community news, to
recognize that there is no longer any such thing (with the possible exception of
such scribbling as society and club news) as "local" news, because any event in
the international area has a local reaction in manpower draft, in economic
strain, in terms, indeed, of our very way of life. There is in
journalism a widespread view that when you embark on interpretation, you are
entering wavy and dangerous waters, the swirling tides of opinion. This is
nonsense. The opponents of interpretation insist that the writer
and the editor shall confine himself to the "facts". This insistence raise two
questions: What are the facts And: Are the bare facts enough
As to the first query, consider how a so-called "factual" story comes
about. The reporter collects, say, fifty facts out of these fifty, his space
allotment being necessarily restricted, he selects the ten which he considers
the most important. This is Judgment Number One. Then he or his editor decides
which of these ten facts shall constitute the lead of the piece. (This is an
important decision because many readers do not proceed beyond the first
paragraph.) This is Judgment Number Two. Then the night editor determines
whether the article shall be presented on Page One, where it has a large impact,
or on Page Twenty-four, where it has little. Judgment Number Three.
Thus, in the presentation of a so-called "factual" or "objective" story,
at least three judgments are involved. They are judgments not at all unlike
those involved in interpretation, in which reporter and editor, calling upon
their research resources, their general background, and their "new neutralism",
arrive at a conclusion as to the significance of the news. The
two areas of judgment, presentation of the news and its interpretation, are both
objective rather than subjective processes--as objective, that is, as any human
being can be. (Note in passing: even through complete objectivity can never be
achieved; nevertheless, the ideal must always be the beacon on the murky news
channels.) If an editor is intent on slanting the news, he can do it in other
ways and more effectively than by interpretation. He can do it by the selection
of those facts that support his particular appeal. He can also do it by the play
he gives a story--promoting it to Page One or demoting it to Page
Thirty. Who might be the readers of this passage
A.Newspaper advertisers. B.Government officials. C.Students of the media. D.Would-be reporters.