"Many ideas about the elements of journalism are wrapped in myth and misconception. That journalist should be protected by a wall between business and news is one myth. That independence requires journalists to be neutral is another. The concept of objectivity has been so mangled it now is usually used to describe the very problem it was conceived to correct." - The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom RosenstielA great many of these ideas are respect despite their status as being nothing more than conjectures in the mind of an uninformed journalist. A reporter, many of said, ought not to be engaged in raising money or selling advertisement space on his website or on his paper, because doing so creates a conflict of interest.
It is understandable that because the reporter took money from a business person he may be more biased towards that individual when covering news; however, is that really the case? Most reporters are smart, and it is unlikely that they will knowingly be biased or one-sided in their writing. It is something that happens rarely, if ever, and when it does it is usually caught. How do you protect yourself against unconscious bias, if you are indeed, raising money from the same people you must cover? Disclose it to your readers, so when you do pass that line, they will tell you where your allegiance ought to lie and put you in your place.
Journalists are never neutral, simply open up any newspaper and that much becomes very obvious, very quickly, yet, we continue to pretend that we are. When we listen to people talk, whether we like it or otherwise, we often always are more convinced by one-side's argument to the detriment of the other. And frankly, we cannot do anything about that since it happens automatically, but we can balance them by presenting the most refined, most powerful, and most reasonable argument that were issued to us.
All journalists are subjective, those who think they are objective are subjectively thinking they are objective.
