RAGE THE NIGHT: THE THREE TYPES OF NEUTRALITY

I was listening to a podcast today called "THE PUB" from an organization called Current, and on this episode New York University professor Jay Rosen @jayrosen_nyu makes the claim that National Public Radio, NPR, is loosing trust with its listeners because it chooses a position of neutrality when there are clearly issues that it should take a stance on as an influential public media empire.

I think he's wrong, but that's not what I'm writing about.

What he fails to note, and also what podcast host Adam Ragusea @aragusea fails to mention, is that there is... are... is... certainly more than one type of neutrality.

I am by no means an expert on the subject, as I have only my two eyes, my two ears, and my ten fingers as my guide, but I've been living as a human being - around and with other human beings - for a while.

Certainly, there are scholarly articles out there in the world on the types of neutrality that exist.

I haven't read them.

I really just googled "types of neutrality" and read a bunch of stuff on ambivalence versus indifference.

Sure, the internet understands that there exists more than one kind of neutrality, but I'm not sure the internet has gotten it right.

The internet says there are only two types of neutrality.

I say that there are three.

And the three types of neutrality are as follows;

1: Positive Neutrality, 2: Regressive Neutrality, 3: Apathetic Neutrality.

And because I'm not actually writing a scholarly article here, I'm going to explain these types of neutrality with stick figures.

POSITIVE NEUTRALITY

REGRESSIVE NEUTRALITY

APATHETIC NEUTRALITY

In the end, I believe that NPR and all journalists who actually make a difference in the world practice a form a positive neutrality. All journalists should endeavor when reporting the news to not have a conflict of interest, and strive to maintain a positive neutrality.

Otherwise, we'd be thrown back into an age of yellow journalism.

Opinion and News are two completely different things. News should remain neutral. Opinion can do a fucking eight ball in broad daylight in the back alley of a Chinese restaurant because that's what opinion loves doing.

Again, this is not to be taken as a scholarly article. Just my fucking thoughts.

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I love hearing feedback from you my dear readers,

and as always, I'm usually wrong.

This week, Jay Rosen tells me how wrong I am:

@iamguylaen @aragusea @pubpodcast @currentpubmedia NPR should take positions is not what I was arguing. Sorry, you got it wrong.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 27, 2016