What lies beyond...

What lies beyond objectivity?

According to Merriam-Webster, the #3 definition of objectivity is:

"Expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations."

Objectivity other definitions. A favorite: "Having reality independent of the mind."

Roll that one around in your noodle.

But it's Definition # 3 that has been my North Star for the better part of a decade. As a journalism student, it was drilled into me by every professor. As a wage-earning journalist, it was what I lived in constant fear of not being.

Objectivity was never designed to keep me, or any other journalist, from having an opinion...we just had to keep it to ourselves. But as time wore on, (and I can only speak with authority about a small slice of it) the fear of bias, slant, or bent grew worse; the fear of your personal thoughts accidentally thrust in the public spotlight. Worst of all: your wicked sense of humor, the one that kept you sane, exposed to the humorless for rabid misinterpretation.

For me (the only one I can speak for) it just became easier not to have any opinion at all. News? Take it in, report it, let it go. Get a drink.

Except that as we bustled around gathering our news 'objectivitally', commenting on news while reporting it became OK. Fox News did it on the right, The Daily Show did it real funny-like; Air America did it 'til they ran out of dough. And you certainly don't need me to tell you that whole shows on Nameless Cable News Networks were devoted to opinionated hollering.

Suddenly, a journalist who clung to objectivity was like the fat guy with his clothes on, smiling awkwardly while the other kids swam naked in the pool.

So fuck it. I'm strippin' down.

I'm going to practice having an opinion. I'm no longer a daily deadline journalist, so I'm going to start writing about What I Think. Of course, like a newborn that can't hold it's head up, I'll be starting small.

I like the Boston Red Sox.

There. I said it.

I like sharp writing about the Boston Red Sox.

A blind homeless man shuffling through the subway with a sign around his neck makes me really really sad, but I rarely do anything about it.

That makes me kind of suck.

I'm SO sick of the word 'media.'

I am an over-thinker.

This first entry was a bit of a survey piece, but you gotta start somewhere.

So what lies beyond objectivity?

Time to find out.