Great phrasing. ++++

This is what he thought of them: “…my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted so as to be most useful, I should answer, “by retraining it to true facts and sound principles only.” Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situation to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day…..I will add that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

Some things, apparently, never change.

Say it ain’t so. Will anyone care?

The news media destroyed its credibility when its people began to believe that they were smarter, more moral, more worthy than their audience. They believe that they are uniquely qualified to determine what we should know, how we should vote, what policies are good and proper. They believe that they and their like-minded friends should rule over the rest of us.

They fumbled their humble. And it has destroyed them.

Their friends in Big Tech are just as bad. Perhaps even worse. https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2023/01/31/whoa-googleleaks-tells-twitterfiles-to-hold-its-beer-with-bombshell-filled-thread/

So the problem is not the jettisoning of "objectivity".
The problem is the OFFICIALLY AUTHROIZED jettisoning of accuracy, honesty and fairness by intentionally disguising such values as, or intentionally confusing them with, "objectivity".

In an effort to “professionalize” journalism, university degree became available by the late 19th century.

The muckrackers of the early 20th century were the early adopters of advocacy journalism.

Then came gonzo journalism, made popular by Hunter Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In narrative form, it blended fact and fiction, immersing the author in the story.

It was a somewhat controversial topic in journalism school as advocacy journalism when I was in college. Since it was impossible to be completely unbiased, be fair, but present a point of view. My school was rather old fashioned and we practiced a balanced approach– though come to think of it, one of my professors was Lincoln Steffen’s son.

It’s been around for a long time, in one form or another, though for a time, reporters were schooled in how to put aside their biases and fairly represent opposing points of view. How well it was done varied.

We’ve now come full circle. In the early days at least, most towns had competing newspapers that were known for their particular point of view. We’ve lost most of that. The only saving grace is major media will be reduced to podcasts and substacks in the future.