The news paradigm and the ideology of objectivity: A socialist at the wall street journal

This study examines the news paradigm as an occupational ideology whose major feature is the principle of objectivity, and the larger hegemonic function of that paradigm. An anomalous case is analyzed to illustrate paradigmatic repair: A. Kent MacDougall caused a controversy in the journalistic community and threatened the paradigmatic norm of objectivity when he revealed that he had been a radical socialist during his ten years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Three types of repair are examined: (a) disengaging and distancing the threatening values from the reporter's work, (b) reasserting the ability of journalistic routines to prevent threatening values from “distorting” the news, and (c) marginalizing the man and his message, making both appear ineffective.