“Objectivity does not mean having no opinions.” This is a sentence written by James Poniewozik in his article about Washington Post not letting its staff to write their opinions about events that happen in their Twitter accounts.
Ponjewosik says that everybody has an opinion about things that happen around them and this shows that they have a brain that they are able to use. Washington Post’s purpose in their new policy is to not lose their credibility. This policy was made after Raju Narisetti, a managing editor in Washington Post, made comment about some news on his own twitter account. Poniewozik defends in his article that as long as the work that the journalist does is fair even though it is against the journalist’s opinion, there is nothing wrong in expressing their opinion.
Journalists shouldn’t be forced to keep their opinion as a secret. People can still be fair reporters but have opinions as longs as these opinions are not extremely hurtful towards other people’s beliefs. Not only Washington Post but also Wall Street Journal put forth a similar policy about their employees using Twitter. Moreover, a journalist Octavia Nasr had to leave her job because of her commented on Ayatollah Fadlallah’s death in her own twitter account.
What an irony that freedom of speech is being suppressed by newspapers because of this new twitter policy.