Jorge Ramos — Is he a Journalist and/or an Advocate?
People following the travelling circus of the primary campaigns in the US have probably been bombarded with images of billionaire real-estate developer Donald Trump.
A few weeks ago he held one of his classic media events and sitting in the audience was an anchor for one of the most popular hispanic broadcast news providers, Univision. Named by Time as one of the most influential people of our time and watched nightly by millions of viewers on Univision and Fusion.
Jorge Ramos, the anchor and correspondent in question, had a heated exchange with the real estate tycoon, forcing him to give the nod to one of his body men and have Ramos promptly removed.
His removal from the press gaggle, left a lot of news outlets in the US shaking their head and asking themselves the question “Did Jorge Ramos cross the line?” Does a journalist with an opinion or an agenda mean they have stepped out of their role as an impartial observer?
“He was totally out of line last night … He stood up and started ranting and raving like a madman” — Donald Trump speaking about Ramos’s actions at the media event
The advocate journalist, is often seen by many in the news establishment as the ranting and raving madman. They picture him standing on his soapbox above the throng of reporters at a conference and viciously going after his mark with complete disregard. Critics believe that by advocating or “editorialising” — journalists lose their credibility as objective watchdogs.
This supposed blurring of lines between activist and journalist, is argued by some to undermine the objective values that journalists stand for but we know for a fact that journalists with an opinion or who editorialise on the air are not a new thing. We have seen them come and go throughout the history of the tv anchor.
They have argued for the better treatment of people during Hurricane Katrina, they have argued for the toppling of key figures in power and in a sense they will continue to do so.
Often seen as the shining example of the journalist advocate was CBS anchor Edward Murrow. He took a stand against the force of McCarthyism and the anti-communist witch hunt that was the House of Un-American Activities.
Critics have challenged that what Jorge Ramos did made him more of an activist posing as a journalist. One article in the conservative magazine National Review asserted that “Ramos’s career has been largely the playing out on television of his own immigration monomania”.
“The big difference is that without looking for that, we are representing a group of people who have no political representation. People know that we journalists have biases and points of view — I’m just simply being transparent,” Ramos said in an interview with WNYC radio show On the Media.
Our preconceptions of what a journalist ought to be has meant that this debate about a journalist advocate has come up time and time again.
But do we still need to have this debate? Journalists with agendas are not uncommon and the cable “news” channels of the US aren’t exactly beacons of objectivity in their own right. Advocacy journalism has produced great things and so long as journalists who practice the craft remain transparent that they’re doing that, there’s no reason to stop them continuing.
To put it in the words of Charlie Skinner from Aaron Sorkin’s the Newsroom:
“The newsroom became a courtroom because I decided that the American voters need a F**in lawyer”
