So Much Wit

Jay Rosen, inter­view­ing him­self:

In pro jour­nal­ism, Amer­i­can style, the View from Nowhere is a bid for trust that adver­tises the view­less­ness of the news pro­ducer. Fre­quently it places the jour­nal­ist between polar­ized extremes, and calls that neither-​​nor posi­tion “impar­tial.” Sec­ond, it’s a means of defense against a style of crit­i­cism that is fully antic­i­pated: charges of bias orig­i­nat­ing in par­ti­san pol­i­tics and the two-​​party sys­tem. Third: it’s an attempt to secure a kind of uni­ver­sal legit­i­macy that is implic­itly denied to those who stake out posi­tions or betray a point of view. Amer­i­can jour­nal­ists have almost a lust for the View from Nowhere because they think it has more author­ity than any other pos­si­ble stance.

(Via John Gru­ber).