Hooray For Objectivity

Today one of my professors quoted a story in a "journalistic context" about how when conservatives are given a piece of information they like, they believe it even more when that information is discredited. I had to ask him where he'd read something like that, so I did. He mentioned a magazine that I've heard of a number of times before, and I couldn't quite place it. But I knew when he said it that I wasn't going to like it, once I remembered.

The magazine was The New Republic, of the Stephen Glass scandal fame, the Ruth Shalit scandal fame, and most recently the Scott Thomas Beauchamp scandal. This is a magazine that I know best for its repeated publication and intentional support of stories they know to be fabrications and plagarisms. And one of my professors reads it quite intently.

My beef here isn't that they're a lefty publication, that's fair game. What bothers me is that if I were to give you one, single, shining example of the downfall of journalistic integrity and the propaganda games that many media outlets have turned into, I'd have to say it would be TNR under Franklin Foer.

Another win for academics, right?