For a free press, reporting facts for their objective significance rather than their perceived benefit to society is a principle long prioritized by conservatives.
In 1925, for example, President Calvin Coolidge commended the American Society of Newspaper Editors for printing recently revealed income statistics in their news columns while their editorial columns advised that publicity for those statistics would be harmful for society. Coolidge praised the newspaper editors for maintaining this necessary tension in their craft. “As practical newsmen they printed the facts. As editorial idealists they protested that there ought to be no such facts available.”
This paradox illustrates a key principle of conservative news journalism: disinterest—printing significant facts as objectively as possible with little care for the social consequences.
I use the term “disinterest” similarly to how Baylor Professor Elizabeth Corey used it in a 2018 essay in National Affairs, “Defending Disinterest.” Corey writes that “the practical-political university is intensely concerned with future outcomes; the disinterested university is focused on the process of learning in and for itself, right now.” Disinterested universities pursue the immediate function of schools as learning environments.
Similarly, disinterested journalists pursue the immediate function of journalism as delivering accurate information on the state of our country rather than using their institutions as platforms for their personal agenda.
When we think of our institutions as performative, rather than formative , they become harder to trust.
Objectivity—the primary application of disinterested journalism—is widely valued in news reporting. But I believe that objectivity is a specifically conservative value, one supported by the most fundamental conservative principles. Broadly speaking, conservatives believe in a transcendent reality, which allows them to value truth for its own sake. Conservatives advocate slow and prudent reform, which leads them to preserve the norms that give journalism credibility as an institution. And most importantly, conservatives see themselves as fulfilling a social role, which motivates them to act as servants to an institution rather than reformers using the institution as their stage.
In the Coolidge example, the “practical newsmen” were fulfilling their social role of providing information to the people. The duty of a newsman is to give all the significant facts, even those he does not believe should be public. A disinterested newsman serves the truth, not the direct good of society. This is why newsmen ought to be in tension with policy makers, and the editorial columns that advise them. They each serve goals that are noble, necessary, but sometimes contradictory.
Our culture seems to find this tension much easier to accept in the realm of law. A defense attorney who capably defends a guilty client does direct harm to the public good by empowering a criminal, but indirectly contributes to the public good by supporting a justice system in which everyone is given a defense. A virtuous defense attorney and a virtuous prosecuting attorney ought to be in tension, because they serve noble, yet contradictory goals.
For journalism to maintain its credibility, we must dedicate ourselves to building it up as an institution, rather than using it as a stage for our activism.
“Disinterest,” in journalism, universities, and our broader culture, is going out of style. In his book A Time to Build, Dr. Yuval Levin explains why Americans are losing trust in our institutions, and why that trust is important to preserve. He writes:
When we don’t think of our institutions as formative but as performative—when the presidency and Congress are just stages for political performance art, when a university becomes a venue for vain virtue signalling, when journalism is indistinguishable from activism—they become harder to trust. They aren’t really asking for our confidence, just for our attention.
For journalism to maintain its credibility, we must dedicate ourselves to building it up as an institution, rather than using it as a stage for our activism.
A conservative is not the world-changing, activist hero in the story he tells of himself. He is an economic contributor, a vital check in a balanced government, a voice in a stable justice system—advancing society as, in the words of Edmund Burke, a partner with “those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”
Opinion journalism plays an important role in synthesizing information into arguments and advice, just as it did in Coolidge’s day, but we must resist the temptation to place news journalism in the service of opinion pieces. Conservatives should lead the way in embracing the uncomfortable paradox of disinterest.