"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
news
But if CFI's applied the same measure of diligence that reporters seem to,
every plane ever built would be a smoldering hulk long ago.

Conversely, if CFIs were expected to fly a new type of aircraft with very
little training time or instruction every day, the result would be the same.
It's definately hard to talk transporation one day, medicine the next,
crime/politics/science, etc.

As for your OSU professor, did he ever teach rules for objective
reporting?

They all did, some more effectively than others. In terms of accuracy,
they'd fail you for misspelling a name (for example) regarldess of how well
the article was written otherwise.

However, it's important to note that publishers aren't necessarily former
journalists or journalism graduates, and they basically get to decide what
to publish and if/whether there will be any particular spin. It's quite a
bit like the music industry, where the artists is working for the company
and gets told what to write, with whom to record, etc. (I know of a
Portland musician who got a major L.A. contract and was told she needed to
get braces and breast implants, so she's back to the coffee shop circuit.)

It's up to the journalist's own ethical standards to determine whether to
write for such a publication. At a job interview for a news editor position
in 1995 I told the interviewer that I would expect truth, accuracy and
objectivity and was told by the manager "Well, we're a left-leaning
publication" so I said a few polite words and then got up and left.

-c