Sigh . . .
Tell him/her that
- Journalists are all selling the idea that the news that they know from the newswire but which you haven't heard/read yet is important. And most of the time, most of the news is unimportant and will soon be forgotten.
- Journalists claim to be objective, or at least that all other journalists are objective (which, if those other journalists make the same claim, is the same thing).
- The only way to even attempt to be objective is to start out with an analysis of any reasons you might have to want to believe what you do.
- Journalists never point out their need to make the news seem more important than it usually is - or any other tendency which inheres in their business model.
- Therefore journalists' claims to objectivity are a fraud.
- People who ignore or heavily discount so-called "objective" news evince far more interest in the truth than people who passively follow the story line of the journalist.
Everyone is naturally subjective, and the only way to attempt objectivity is to openly face up to known reasons why you would prefer to believe what you do, rather than the opposite. This also means that it is presumptuous to claim to be above labels such as left or right, conservative or liberal.Claims of objectivity - by journalists or anyone else - are therefore self-falsifying.