My initial reaction to Rem Reider's "Reporting the Conclusions" was that reporters shouldn't be allowed to insert their own viewpoints. After all, that's what being free from bias is all about, right? News organizations, especially broadcast recently, have been accused too often of "concluding" things that aren't necssarily accurate just for the sake of a good story. Fox News is said to draw conclusions favoring the conservatives, and NBC and CNN are said to do the exact opposite.
After thinking about the article some, however, I'm not sure that my initial response is correct. I don't have a problem at all with Anderson Cooper concluding that Hosni Mubarak has given the public nothing but false information in the past few weeks. It was backed up by facts - Mubarak DID lie. Cooper wasn't totally wrong for saying what he said. The question, though, is should he have said it. After thinking about it, I believe he should have. Sometimes reporters try so hard to keep their opinions out that it makes the facts seem unclear. The truth? Mubarak lied. There's your story.
In conclusion (it's my blog so concluding is completely cool), it should be alright to make a personal conclusion in news reporting if it's backed up by facts. If you can't prove your conclusion, however, keep it to yourself.
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