The Washington Post didn’t endorse a presidential candidate for the 2024 election, and announced they wouldn’t be endorsing any candidates in future elections. This resulted from a decision made by Jeff Bezos, the Post’s owner. I think this was a good choice, but Bezos made it for the wrong reasons. A newspaper’s choice not to endorse a presidential candidate shouldn’t be because a billionaire wants to make a prospective future president happy, it should be because of a paper’s ideals and values, as well as the decisions of the editorial board. The reason I think papers shouldn’t endorse a presidential candidate because at the end of the day that’s an opinion, and a paper should stick to facts. This also connects to how ‘news’ influencers often inject their opinion into social media.
The reason I think staying neutral was a good choice is because as a whole, a newspaper’s job is to inform. It isn’t to tell people what to do, and endorsing a candidate is effectively that. I think that newspapers should try to be as unbiased as possible while letting opinion writers publishing within the clearly labeled opinion section say what they want. According to a study from the University of Rochester of headlines from major newspapers, news has become more biased over the past 10 years. This highlights how writers have started to inject opinions into news articles. This means that readers should try to consume news from varied outlets, to make sure they’re not just sticking to a bias. However, this responsibility shouldn’t fall on the reader entirely. Newspapers also need to be constantly aware of their duty as a source of unbiased information about current events.
On the flip side, I do think that opinion articles have a time and a place. They’re good for exposing people to alternative views, especially an article that has different leanings from the newspaper as a whole. Particularly because people are more likely to listen if an alternate opinion shows up in their preferred paper. So, opinion is useful. However, the lines between opinion and fact are becoming increasingly blurred.
I’ve been talking about newspapers and reading on news sites, but this is a paper for high schoolers, who don’t consume most of their news from papers. According to Statista, 50% of Gen Z get their news daily from social media. However, the same things I was talking about earlier apply to social media news too, except with more misinformation. In fact, according to Demands Sage, 40% of information shared on social media is false. Influencers don’t have anyone keeping them in check, so they often don’t cite their sources. Keep in mind that an influencer’s job is to get you to keep watching, not to provide you with accurate objective information. This means they often sensationalize to keep their audience engaged.
So, in conclusion, I think opinion has a time and place, and that it is increasingly bleeding into the news section of papers, and there needs to be a clear divide. This means one should always source the things the author is telling you, meaning investigate what the their intention and goal is with a piece of news/media. Also, check sources. Don’t just blindly follow what you see on the internet, Google it and see if other places say the same thing. As you go into the world of news, read a variety of sources and don’t blindly trust everything you see.
