Just because it's
a popular topic right now, I want to point out two "
the Journal Star is biased" letters in today's LJS letters to the editor. The first complains about the Journal Star's
coverage of the LYPG mayoral debate, which Eric Lemke thinks focused too much on Chris Beutler. The second complains about coverage of a
Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty poll that showed that 51% of Nebraskans favor repeal of the death penalty.
I'll be honest: I used to get uppity about the Journal Star's biases. These days, I just can't work up enough indignation to care. In part it's because my politics have changed. (Before you ask: no, my politics don't neatly line up with the LJS.) But more importantly, it's because I disagree with sentiments like this, from Mr. Lemke (first letter above):
Being a news organization, your duty is to deliver news to the public that is unbiased and forms no opinion.
That simply isn't true. That may be the case for news paid for by our tax dollars (hello PBS!). However, a private company's only duty is to make money for its shareholders, and the company's employees' only duty is to be true to themselves and their values.
Besides, objectivity is relative. One man's objective analysis is another man's hyper-partisan screed. Few stories can be told in a way that is free of the author's passions and biases. So what? In the Journal Star's case, it doesn't seem to me that any of their reporters or columnists are going out of their way to hide who they are.
None of this is to say that Lincolnites shouldn't get fired up about the Journal Star if they really want to. If you don't like the way the LJS swings and you want them to change, by all means, demand change. It's your duty as a consumer. (There's that word duty again.) I would, however, like to see folks drop the implication that the Journal Star's motives are somehow sinister. The "Journal Star" has no motives beyond the collective motives of its employees, and its individual employees' motives are no more sinister than "I want to finish this damn article so I can go home and watch 'The Office'". To think that the LJS as an entity has a single motive requires assigning it a level of sophistication it does not have.