I came to realize in my time as a student reporter at an esteemed college newspaper that mainstream journalism is structurally flawed.

It is not my intent to knock the paper, which was valuable to my maturation as a writer.  As an arts reporter, specifically, as the senior music reporter, I covered an array of different music- and arts-related events.  This gave me some very good experience and allowed me to establish some early contacts.

However, despite the “unbiased” approach I took to my writing, it was ultimately unsatisfying.  Despite my best efforts to prevent it, my stories were essentially PR pieces, advertisements for the events I was covering.  I realize that standard news reporting doesn’t have the same kind of public relations bias that some of the “softer” things do, but any story can (and will) be spun.  Even when I’m writing a preview of a concert for a band I enjoy, I feel as if I’m some kind of shill, a pitchman trying to sell a commodity.  I relished the chance to write album reviews, since I was free to insert my own opinion into my writing.  But even those are tempered by a loyalty to “decency” — Lester Bangs was fired from Rolling Stone for insulting Canned Heat — and a willingness to consider some of the bile the big record companies release as being worthy of review in the first place.

In other words, mainstream journalism is not for me.

I learned in my media ethics class that it’s impossible to remain completely impartial, regardless of the journalist’s integrity.  I’d like to add to that statement.  I think remaining impartial is unnecessary.  Intentional bias is better than the kind that results from trying to be impartial.  It may be less ethical, but we live in a world where gigantic financial firms collapse, are bailed out by the government, and then use that money to reward the very people responsible for the problems in the first place.  The ends justify the means; if your intentions are pure, the path you take is less important.

Television programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have proven that media parody has mainstream appeal.  Even more interesting, both shows have assumed roles as media watchdogs (see Jon Stewart’s interview with Jim Cramer).  There’s more to news than straight reporting, and the monumental failure of print journalism has only served to prove it.  Ridiculing the hypocrisies of mainstream media outlets while telling the Truth is a big step in the direction of journalism’s salvation.

No more bullshit.  No more pandering.

No reason to try to please anyone.  Journalism isn’t about making friends.  Will this outlook ruffle some feathers?  There’s no doubt.  But then again, isn’t that the point? Great journalism has always come at someone’s expense.