There are boundaries between straight reporting and opinion for good reason. Too often, especially on the internet, they disappear.

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Clark Hoyt, the public editor for the NY Times, posted an insider’s view of how journalists at the Times separate opinion from straight reporting. I commend the article to all who write for publication on OpEdNews. Hoyt reports actual controversies at the Times where the lines between news, opinion, and advocacy were crossed. Quoting from Hoyt’s article:

“Subtlety and restraint are important in news columns,” [NY Times Executive Editor Bill Keller] told me. Business columnists must build a case through reporting that can lead a reader to a conclusion, Keller said. Op-Ed columnists have “greater license to write from an ideological viewpoint and be prescriptive.”

What’s at stake here is credibility. On the internet, the sort of debate that Hoyt reports doesn’t happen. There isn’t an Editorial Page to segregate opinion. No editor is forbidding out and out advocacy or advice.

The problem arises when it is not clear to what category a posting belongs from the text. Often news is tainted with opinion. Though this is true of all media, it is blatant on the internet. All but the most naïve take internet postings with a healthy dose of skepticism. Too often we find distortions when we check facts. FactCheck.org and Snopes.com owe their existence to this reality.

For our individual work as contributors to be taken seriously, I suggest that we need to be clear what journalistic hat we are wearing (reporter, columnist, advocate) and not leave it to the reader to guess. For our collective work on any given web-site to be credible, it’s crucial that we make the distinctions.

Authors Website: http://rbshreve.com

Authors Bio:

Richmond Shreve is a retired business executive whose careers began in electronics (USN) and broadcasting in the 1960s. Over the years he has maintained a hobby interest in amateur radio, and the audio-visual arts while working in sales and marketing. For the last thirty years he was co-owner and CEO of the Middlebrook Crossroads business park (Edmar Corporation) in Bridgewater, NJ. He holds a lifetime FCC Second Class Commercial license, and an amateur radio General Class license (W2EMU). In 2012 Richmond retired from instructing sports car owners in high performance driving techniques at major tracks including NJ Motorsports Park, Watkins Glen, and Summit Point. He is the author and publisher of the Instructor Candidate Manual used by BMWCCA and other car clubs to train their on-track instructors.

Prior to moving to Newtown,PA, he volunteered as chief engineer of WCFA the Cape May, NJ community radio station as well as working as a gaffer on the Cape May Film Festival technical crew, a driver/engineer in the Cape May Point Volunteer Fire Company, served as its Treasurer and as Treasurer of its Firemen's Relief Association. He edited and printed the Cape May Point Taxpayer's Association Newsletter.

As a computer power user, graphic artist, photographer, and website designer he helps nonprofits build and maintain web sites. He is a fromer Vestry member of the Episcopal Church of the Advent.
Richmond is a citizen journalist and former Senior Editor at OpEdNews.com, a progressive news and opinion site on the internet.

Richmond lives with his wife Marguerite Chandler in Newtown, PA wher he continues to write essays ad short fiction. They travel extensively with their fifth wheel RV.

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Books:
Lost River Anthology (Amazon.com)
Instructor Candidate Manual (LuLu.com)