The word “journalist” is one that has been around since the 18th century.

Much like all words, it has undergone various changes in its meaning over that period of time, developing with the changing decades in which it was used.

More recently, however, the word journalist has become tarnished.

In a professional field that continually sees increasing amounts of competition among colleagues and peers, many journalists have resorted to fabricating facts and entire articles.

All of these misfortunes for the journalism world, while extremely serious in their nature, have more recently become shadowed by an even less-desirable stereotype.

This stereotype is that journalism carries an inherent liberal bias. That’s right, every article, column and editorial written by every reporter, columnist and editor has a slant to the left. It sounds pretty extreme, but this seems to be the public’s pervasive thought nowadays.

With a little explanation, many myths about journalists can be debunked.

This issue has been addressed recently in mainstream media. The State, a newspaper out of Columbia, S.C., ran an article Oct. 4 with a prominent headline including “…the myth of the ‘liberal media establishment.’”

The writer, Cindi Ross Scoppe, explained how as a group, journalists are “independent, fiercely competitive and suspicious of secrecy, and [they] tend to distrust and even disdain authority.”

All of these are indeed characteristics of journalists. They are necessary for journalists to perform their jobs well by serving as watchdogs of government and those in power.

Liberal biases, however, are solely stereotypical.

A newspaper, by definition, is supposed to be completely objective in its reporting. This is obviously impossible because everyone carries his or her own opinions. This is what makes journalism such a unique field – everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions, but at the same time, reporters are expected to be objective.

The perspective – or editorial section – of the newspaper was created to give writers a voice for their opinions and this is where opinions should stay. Columns and editorials are the media by which journalists may express their thoughts.

“Anyone who understands the journalistic mind-set realizes that journalists don’t care what the political views are of their targets. But most people don’t understand the journalistic mind-set,” Scoppe said.

Simply put, journalists are neither liberal or conservative. They are of a different breed considering the work they perform. Journalists’ actions cannot be boiled down to favor either political party.

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www.northernstar.info.