Does Patriotism Have a Role in Journalism?

Patriotism can be a dangerous assumption by definition; any political party, theory, or agenda can cheaply claim the monopoly of love and loyalty to one's nation, which will consequently condemn all those in disagreement with a popular theory as traitors through faulty logic.

When patriotism is publicly defined as such, especially in times of crisis, the journalist has an obligation to abstain. However, when the journalist foresees that his duties as a loyal citizen can be best fulfilled through the course of revealing the unbiased truth to the general public, regardless of its consequences, he may very well be the greater patriot as defined by the American founding fathers.

Thomas Paine, although overtly partisan to the idea of sovereignty for the American colonies within his pamphlet entitled, Common Sense, had nonetheless declared, within the last paragraph of its introduction, that neither his opinion, his associations, nor his charisma to carry both were relevant to the rationale proposed within:

“Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the DOCTRINE ITSELF, not the MAN. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle,” wrote Paine.

It was this very proclamation which became a cornerstone in modern democracy. If the government of any nation is comprised of elected officials, established and regulated through the consensus of the general public, it would therefore be vital for all private citizens to be well-informed of actions and policies laid down by their elected officials to prevent tyranny and misrepresentation.

Such a responsibility must be conducted by a body of citizens assigned to effectively extract main points and facts from the demogogy of powerful and influential figures, and especially to reveal those motions affecting the general public but conducted in secret. This “Fourth Estate,” so cynically coined by Edmund Burke in the wake of the French Revolution, provides checks and balances between government and the governed. This has been the primary role of American Journalism, and the philosophies supporting this role has slowly evolved into the concept of “journalistic integrity.”

To reiterate, journalism is most effective in democracies, and expressing loyalty in both institutions, uncorrupted, will neither contradict nor compromise one another. However, one should never confuse the love of democratic principles with nationalism. Not only are they two completely separate concepts, but extreme and irrational forms of nationalism can potentially, and quite frequently do, interfere with free speech. Without the ability to express every relevant perspective in a social issue, journalism will quickly degrade into public relations for the status quo.

Some may argue that unbiased journalism, though honorable in theory, is unrealistic because everyone has an opinion with limited facts to support it. It may be true that every person has their own opinion, and even a right to one, but one who postulates before every angle has been assessed is a fool, for this kind of willful ignorance is unhealthy for both journalists and citizens alike. How one formulates an opinion can be a private affair, and just like any other job, you leave your personal life at home before going to work.

The responsibility of a journalist is to either break down rhetoric into figurative facts or to attribute evaluation to someone else; a journalist's ego should never be involved the written article, no matter how sensitive the topic may be. If a journalist has a problem with this, perhaps he should reconsider employment in social or political activism.