Dan Balz Washington Post Columnist and TV Commentator

At the 2011 FOX NEWS Debate in Florida, Dan Balz will not answer questions about the Iraq War, farm subsidies, bankérs bailout, moral principles, justice or redistribution of wealth.
He wants to pretend that his views on these issues don't affect the questions he asks. However, his views do affect the questions he asks, for example, even though he acknowledges that redistribution of wealth is a fundamental issue, he admits that he has never asked any questions about it.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Dan Balz
• Jan Helfeld
• journalism
• WASHINGTON POST Columnists
• FOX DEBATES

[nightpotato]

How can one be an objective journalist?

[janhelfeld]

@nightpotato  Objectivity does not consist in not having views or not sharing them; it consists in focusing on the facts.

[badgenome]

Shorter Dan Balz: "I have views, but if I don't share them that makes me an objective journalist! Derp!"

[janhelfeld]

@badgenome I agree. Objectivity does not consist in not having views or not sharing them; it consists in focusing on the facts.

[snerka]

I really like your stuff Jan. Very rare approach and basically unheard of here in Sweden.

[janhelfeld]

@snerka I would love to do it in SWEDEN as well.

[pbfrank13]

can barely understand because of the sound :( re-upload maybe?

[GypsyHustled]

The sound is a bit weird on this one for some reason.

[ytmikelol]

If, for example, one political party wants to kill terrorist suspects without evidence, a trial, or any due process at all based on the signature of one man, the president. The other party wants to hold these suspects in detention indefinitely, same criteria. Would Dan Balz simply ask which choice the people will vote for, or would he have the courage and determination to go against both parties, proclaiming how wrong it is to trample the basic human rights protected by our Bill of Rights?

[MerlinYoda]

Mr. Balz probably wouldn't even answer Jan if he asked whether he preferred Coke of Pepsi for fear of sharing an opinion with others and somehow not being able to maintain his precious "objectivity" (however he defines that). :-)

[JartaMan]

Great videos. But is there a reason why you decided to dress up like hitler? ha ha haha...

[alalelalex]

A journalist without opinions on what is right and wrong objectively, is one that is incapable of reasoning.

[liOVERLOADil]

@janhelfeld When was the last time you read an article where the writers opinion wasn't involved? I would love to find the articles written by this mythological "objective journalist".

[rumco]

Jan fails to understand that there ought to be no government so his question is irrelevant. Stealing money from people to pay for collective "security" is theft as much as stealing to provide health care. Both are redistributive.

[rumco]

@janhelfeld Value judgments necessary influence (consciously or subconsciously) on which facts a journalist focuses so strictly speaking objective journalist would have to a robot. What could be called objective is the understanding of which facts are relevant.

[JohnCurtisFolkerts]

@mikrobspen, it's not a hitler look, more like Charlie Chaplin and the guy from Taxi. But anyways, Jan I'm glad you beefed up your video quality but he is right, you need to get better audio quality.

[mikrobspen]

Jan, I watch all your videos because you are a unique & interesting interviewer. But you are hurting your reputation by putting up a video with such poor audio. And the Hitler look doesn't work either.

[nightpotato]

@janhelfeld I agree that concealing one's biases makes (as this person did) one a worse reporter. However, even a reporter who is open about his/her views, and tries to focus as much as possible on the facts will not be objective, don't you think? Its impossible to report every single fact. What the reporter selects for the story, and what they choose to discard will be colored by his/her views.