View source for Terry Mollner on the mature journalist

<h4>Terry Mollner of the Trusteeship Institute, an MGP2006 attendee/participant, has developed a theory of the "mature journalist". Here's an excert from a recent post by Terry: </h4>

"I have come to believe that the old school of journalism taught students to be detached, to “put their beliefs aside” and report as an objective observer what they witness. People in the past may have believed reports could do this, but few today believe this is possible. Nothing is separate from anything else. It is not possible to “put their beliefs aside”: to separate themselves into two parts. This results in a lie: “my beliefs are not effecting what I write.” 

"A more mature approach is to know that nothing is separate from anything else and see one’s self as a fully active participant with everyone else. Therefore, a journalist is a player, a fully active participant in the society. Whatever beliefs he or she possesses are owned as his or her beliefs…not treated as something that can be put aside because it is known that this is not possible. Instead, he or she develops the skill of being a facilitator…as one who facilitates a meeting develops this skill. 

"This ends the activity of being a passive observer or referee. Quite the contrary, the mature journalist does not simply tell the story of a conflict, even seeking conflict perhaps where it does not even lie to sell newspapers. A mature journalist knows that the highest priority of all people is good. Knowing this the mature journalist finds this in each person. Then he or she seeks elders in the community who can identify ways that the two opposing views could be put together to make a whole…which he or she knows is the primary intention of all players. 

"In this way the mature journalist becomes a very active and important player in society to assist it to end the immature behavior of seeing everything as a football game and instead sees everything as people primarily seeking how to put all the parts together into a whole that will work best for the common good: a jazz concert where all in the community are playing an instrument. This allows the journalist to come to the job owning his or her beliefs but free to exercise the mature journalist skills of being an active player in making the world a better place with all his or her passion and enthusiasm fully free to be present and active…in the role of a highly skilled facilitator. 

"This is journalism as a highly skilled facilitator not as a passive observer or referee. This will make journalism not only fun but also an extremely important profession once again."

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