Lewis Raven Wallace Wants You to Know His Story. And About Objectivity in Journalism.

Who knew that journalistic objectivity was a weapon?

Lewis Raven Wallace’s 2019 book “The View from Somewhere” thoroughly investigates the history and application of the journalistic standard of objectivity. Wallace makes no effort to mask his negative view of the objectivity principle, as the cover of his book markedly identifies it as a myth to be undone.

Wallace’s primary message lies in the fact that objectivity is used against journalists to control the narrative, rather than to ensure they are properly doing their jobs. To arrive at this conclusion is, however, a complicated journey.

“The View from Somewhere” tracks the use and abuse of objectivity through the tales of journalists dating back to the 19th century but unexpectedly begins by discussing the 2013 #BLACKLIVESMATTER movement. Wallace was working in public radio at the time the movement gained traction and admits that he contributed to missteps taken by journalists covering the unjust murders of Black Americans at the hands of police. This is the start of a bothersome pattern that Wallace perpetuates throughout the following chapters, somewhat unnecessarily inserting himself into history.

Wallace desperately wants to tell his own story, and for good reason. His experience as a trans and queer journalist in an unforgiving atmosphere is a story necessary to be told, and one that many modern journalists could benefit from understanding. Wallace is thirsting to write a memoir in “The View from Somewhere,” but I’m not convinced this is the right setting.

Wallace’s analysis of objectivity in journalism is fascinating, nonetheless. He has an exceptional ability to set up a scene for the reader and seamlessly connect it to our growing understanding of how objectivity is used repeatedly as a roadblock for journalists. Particular attention is paid to how authorities, whether newspaper editors or the United States government, have used the principle of objectivity as a tactic to silence reporters. Wallace uses several examples of news organizations in the 1930s that abused the concept of objectivity in order to control who got to tell stories in their papers. Similarly, in an analysis of objectivity in reporting on the Vietnam War, Wallace reveals the US government’s efforts to conflate objectivity and bias to silence critical reporters.

Wallace, in my favorite segment of the book, also sheds light on the queer reporters who battled through weak funding and public stigma to cover the AIDS crisis as it unfolded. Often taking a sideline position to powerful publications like The New York Times, alternative newspapers like Gay Community News in Boston led the charge in seriously covering AIDS for years before the others even acknowledged it.

“They were not big newsroom objective journalists,” said Wallace of gay reporters who covered AIDS during a panel discussion hosted by the Columbia Journalism Review in 2022. “...to me, the question is not, what is the big newsroom boss going to tell their reporters to do? It’s what are all of us going to do to create the kind of news economy that we need and that we deserve.”

Much of “The View from Somewhere” combines history with theories of subjectivity. “...subjectivity and self-definition – in other words, choice – is an inherently political act, which in and of itself can challenge the operation of power and control,” wrote Rhea Rollmann in a Pop Matters review of the book. Through some convoluted storytelling, Wallace arrives at this judgment that the nature of human beings and their experiences is entirely subjective. With some interpretation, every action taken and every personal choice is inherently political. Objectivity is a divine myth, and journalism has suffered because of it.

Despite my qualms about the missteps Wallace may have taken by combining his personal experiences with historical and theoretical lessons, he still makes an essential contribution to our understanding of journalistic objectivity.