Centrism Does Not Equal Objectivity

A bland and boring ideology.

Under the norm of objectivity that dominates mainstream political journalism in the United States, reporters are supposed to avoid endorsing competing political viewpoints or proposals. In practice, however, journalists often treat centrist policy priorities--especially on fiscal policy--as value-neutral. That's wrong. While it's widely accepted that the federal government faces limits on what it can borrow in the financial markets, there is significant disagreement, including among experts, over the priority that should be given to reducing current deficit and debt levels relative to other possible policy objectives. It is, in other words, a political issue. Reporters often ignore this conflict, treating deficit-cutting as a non-ideological objective while portraying other points of view as partisan or political. That's why it's not accepted for reporters to explicitly advocate, say, abortion bans or recognition of gay marriage, but criticism of the president for not advocating entitlement cuts with sufficient fervor can run in a "factcheck" column. 

This confusion between centrism and objectivity cropped up again in coverage of the budget deal, which often portrayed the fact that the agreement did little to cut the federal debt as a failing. The Washington Post's Lori Montgomery, for instance, was implicitly critical, writing that "the deal would do nothing to trim the debt, which is now larger, as a percentage of the economy, than at any point in U.S. history except during World War II." McClatchy's David Lightman also suggested that the lack of more aggressive deficit-cutting was a flaw. The bill is "likely to still increase the federal deficit, if only slightly, this year and next," he wrote, and is "hardly the grand bargain that's eluded Washington for years, much less a plan to make a serious dent in the government's $17.2 trillion debt.