Customer Reviews

Just the Facts: How "Objectivity" Came to Define American Journalism

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This is one of the best treatments of journalism I've ever read. It is both a gripping historical narrative (with an excellent chapter on how the New York Times covered lynching) and a serious intellectual history of an idea central to journalism: how journalists started to think of themselves as objective. At its core, it is also a cultural history of the nineteenth century. Perhaps this review makes the book sound like it's a bit of everything, but the chapters are focused and interesting. I recommend it to anyone interested in journalism and/or intellectual history.

I have ready many books on journalism and its historical significance, but none traces how objectivity has shaped the profession like "Just the Facts." I heartily recommend this unique and compelling book for anyone interested in the field and how it came to be.

I bought this book after reading the favorable review in the Christian Science Monitor. It is a useful book for journalists and people interested in media history. Its historical analysis of objectivity is more needed than ever, with journalism getting more sensational by the day.

David Mindich begins and ends his book with the assertion that objectivity, and the particular instance of journalistic objectivity, are myths that no one believes in outside of contemporary newsrooms. These inter-related assertions of opinion sandwich a historical analysis of how "objectivity" came to be the guiding ethic of American journalism. Unfortunately, apart from a glib reference to Jaques Derrida, and a terribly mistaken point on Albert Einstein, Mindich completely avoids addressing the considerable history of philosophical objectivity in the same historical time-frame. So we end up with a book about a profound philosophical issue reaching philosophical conclusions but absent any real philosophy. Irritating, yes - but also rather ironic: so inimical is "objectivity" to Mindich, he has to forgo any objective claim for the truth of what he says to prevent falling into self-contradiction. Ooops.