Journalists are people too...

Voting journalists?!? Are you insane?

Please note my use of sarcasm.

Here's the thing about journalists...we're also people. I cannot tell you the number of times I have had the discussion with my sister about journalistic bias. She is convinced that we remain a group of party pushers who live only for one candidate, issue or for one side of the spectrum.

"How ridiculous," I tell her.

Has anyone considered that we have more depth then that?!

Journalists, despite our best efforts at times, are people. Regular people with opinions and thoughts and views...about everything. From what we like to wear to the candidates we support, we just can't help it...we're a part of the human race too. Sorry to shock and disapoint.

The important thing to note is the difference between journalists and good journalists. Until someone steps behind an anchor desk, microphone, or sits down at a keyboard to convey news to a group of people with the assumption of an unbiased view resting on their shoulders, then their just people. But once they have their "journalist cap" on, pardon the use of a ridiculous image, then their opinions need to be null, their position neutral and their first loyalty should be to their readers. Good journalists understand that no one cares about their opinion.

Some blame Fox for being too conservative, others CNN for being too liberal. I blame the journalist that doesn't understand their job.

According to the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review,

"If you are a writer promising them news, well then, the information that you deliver had better be accurate, complete and fresh to your audience."

Hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

What it comes down to is that people have opinions, journalists included. And until someone designs some journalistic robot to cruise around from interview to interview, we're just going to have to assume that there are journalists good enough to forget about their personal beliefs and present the news as it is meant to be. Unbiased, accurate and "fresh".

Taking away a journalists' right to vote is not only unconstitutional, in my opinion, but pointless. Refusing to let a journalist walk into the voting booth and cast a ballot is not going to stop them from presenting biased news to the public; only good training and a sense of integrity can do that.

Here's a thought, hire good journalists...and there we go.