Texas A&M to Teach Aspiring Journalists How to “Put Bias Aside”

Ten years after they eliminated journalism as a major, Texas A&M has revived the program with the goal of teaching future journalists how to be objective and unbiased in their reporting, according to the tamuTimes.

The program will be directed by veteran journalist Dale Rice, whose journalism career spanned 35 years.

Rice said that while today’s journalism can be heavy on opinion and light on objectivity, the revived major will strive to change that trend by training future journalists to report the news without bias:

Our underlying philosophy is we teach students how to put bias aside to cover a story. They learn to gather information, report it fairly and report both sides of the story.

That’s a noble goal and one that Accuracy in Media has been advocating for more than 45 years, but it has been largely ignored by journalism schools, where fact-checking and objectivity have too often become a foreign concept.

But Rice is going to try. He believes that one thing that sets his students apart is their adherence to Texas A&M’s Core Values:

It’s important for our journalism program to supply objective journalists who cover issues that are critical to the state and nation. The principles of free press given to us by our forefathers have not changed. As a flagship university, it is critical we play an important role in carrying out that mission and I’m a huge proponent of sending Aggie journalists into the world for that reason.

It will be a few years before we will be able to tell whether or not Rice remains true to his words by churning out objective, unbiased journalists. But if he does, it will be a major achievement.

Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media, our sister organization.

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