From Rhetorica: Press-Politics Journal

The key for me is good reporting in both analysis and opinion writing. The difference is one of intention: opinion should be about changing hearts and minds with knowledge and wisdom; analysis should be about knowledge and wisdom (i.e. organized information embedded in a context and the capacity to know what body of knowledge is relevant to the solution of significant problems). Analysis, therefore, should not promote specific agendas; it should examine agendas.

I don’t want to suggest that a Golden Age of opinion journalism has ever existed, but it does seem to me that the state of opinion journalism today is very poor. Columnists have apparently lost the desire or ability to report as custodians of fact with a discipline of verification. They apparently intend to change hearts and minds with mere blather. What we have today (with a few notable exceptions across the political spectrum) is a legion of pundits. Pundits are not journalists. Read more…

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