(L-R) Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Lowell Thomas
Photo by Tullio Saba
The Trump presidency and all it has brought to the political landscape - including “presidential tweets like today’s ugly attack on an MSNBC host” - has put American journalism at a crossroads. Some have answered through investigative journalism, with remarkable results. Others have chosen to take a stand and openly assume a political point of view, leaving nonpartisanship for another day. Is it time to forego the first commandment of journalism - thou shalt not take sides - and leave objectivity on the sidelines? We ask Mitchell Stephens, professor of journalism at NYU and the author of The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism. Stephens thinks objectivity in American journalism might be overrated.