How Journalism Schools Are Baking Bias Right Into The Cake

Over the past decade, the biggest news outlets in our country have resorted to reporting that is tainted by their journalists’ personal beliefs, regardless of political affiliation. Apparently, the virtue of objective reporting has become a thing of the past. Being a student at the Missouri School of Journalism has shown me that the main contributor that often doesn’t get the attention it deserves is the dwindling standards of journalistic ethics.

In one of my core journalism classes this past semester, my professor argued that “objectivity harms,” claiming that the ideal itself is essentially dead in the media today. This claim allowed her to justify the uncritical imposition of her own beliefs on a class of nearly 200 students. The irony was hard to miss. The course, Cross Cultural Journalism, was designed to teach students how to represent different groups fairly and accurately in the media. However, it became clear during the week on International Politics and Conflict that this was not the lesson being taught.

Instead of discussing the various approaches that journalists have taken to represent international powers and explain their conflicts, class was spent watching a biased documentary about a Palestinian mayor. After what can only be described as a problematic class discussion, in which my professor pushed the genocide libel and allowed classmates to yell at one another to voice opposition, she decided to invite the filmmaker for a Q&A.

At one point in his discussion, the filmmaker said he wouldn’t have been able to make this film after October 7 because it was “made for an audience that no longer exists.”

He explained that the documentary was made for those who were either neutral or uneducated about the complexities of the conflict, and even though many of his scenes presented opinions that demonized Israel, his attempt at objectivity during our discussion was refreshing. I could agree with him that the discourse on the conflict has lost a certain capacity for neutrality, and therefore the audience his film was intended to serve.

Having a person who seemingly has strong opinions critical of Israel restrain himself from pushing his own beliefs onto a group of students gave me a chance to find common ground. My professor, however, took a different approach.

Throughout the dialogue, she repeatedly inserted her own political opinions. When discussing the current status of former Palestinian mayor, Musa Hadid, she asked rhetorically, “There’s still a Ramallah?” She also repeatedly minimized Hamas’s part in the beginning of the war, often trying to shift the blame to Israel or oversimplifying the whole issue.

In doing so, she transformed the class into another exercise in reinforcing preconceived anti-Israel beliefs. More importantly, it showcased the extreme bias my professor holds, her disregard for journalistic integrity, and the influence professors wield in their classrooms.

My earlier negative experience of voicing an unpopular opinion convinced me to stay quiet this time around. Expressing my beliefs didn’t seem worth the trouble.

If this class were taught by a responsible professor, it would have allowed for a multitude of ideas and interpretations, capitalizing on the fact that students come from different backgrounds, political ideologies, and socioeconomic statuses to simulate the kind of audience we will be writing for as prospective journalists.

The lesson implicitly being taught here is that if a journalist believes strongly enough in a narrative or a specific side of an issue, the journalistic ethics we’ve been taught can be bent or altogether forgotten to fit that narrative. At best, this kind of subpar journalism produces an uninformed society. At worst, it empowers activist movements that cause more harm than good.

I hope my peers eventually come to understand the power journalists hold and strive to act responsibly. All stories have more than one side, and it’s our duty as journalists to explore each perspective when forming personal beliefs.

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Leore Tal is a contributing writer for The College Fix, a Journalism and Political Science student at the University of Missouri, and an undergraduate Fellow with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CAMERA.