Death to Facts: Northwestern journalism prof Steven Thrasher tells pro-Palestinian demonstrators to reject objective reporting – Updated – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

In a speech Saturday to protesters at Northwestern University, Professor Steven Thrasher of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism endorsed the worst of what’s wrong in journalism today. “To the Medill students and journalists within earshot, I say to you: Our work is not about objectivity,” he said. “Our work is about you putting your brilliant minds to work and opening your compassionate hearts.” The speech is reported here by The Daily Northwestern and Thrasher’s full text is here.

Thrasher, and far too many in prominent positions in journalism, have long rejected the traditional goal of reporting unbiased facts. Instead, they say, reporters should promote narratives about what they believe is social justice. It’s called “advocacy journalism,” or, to critics, “woke journalism.” Three years ago, nationally recognized law professor Jonathan Turley summarized the trend this way:

Thrasher’s view of journalism is spreading among top schools. We have been writing about the assault on foundational concepts of neutrality in journalism in academia. This includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy. Columbia Journalism Dean and New Yorker writer Steve Coll has denounced how the First Amendment right to freedom of speech was being “weaponized” to protect disinformation. Likewise, the University of North Carolina recently offered an academic chair in Journalism to New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones. While Hannah-Jones was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her writing on The 1619 Project, she has been criticized for her role in purging dissenting views from the New York Times pages and embracing absurd anti-police conspiracy theories.

Northwestern University seems fine with Thrasher’s substitution of opinion for fact. His bio on their site says, “As a teacher, he encourages students to draw upon history, theory, culture, and reporting to critically read and create media narratives.”

“Create media narratives”? That’s what journalists are supposed to do?

Consider one of Thrasher’s “narratives.” You no doubt remember the one that says an innocent protester named Michael Brown was murdered in 2014 by police in Ferguson, Missouri. It put Black Lives Matter in the national spotlight and gave rise to the “hands up, don’t shoot” slogan, which was used incessantly. Riots ensued.

That narrative no doubt is still widely believed, thanks to journalists like Thrasher, who was writing sympathetically about Brown for The Guardian at the time.

In fact, however, a grand jury concluded there wasn’t probable cause even to charge the cop who shot Brown. The policeman acted in self-defense, the jury found, based heavily on eye witness testimony.  The Department of Justice — during the Obama Administration — also cleared the policeman in 2015 of any civil rights violation in the shooting.

But that didn’t stop Thrasher from calling the shooting a “murder” in an interview well thereafter. Don’t let facts get in the way of a social justice narrative. That’s what this is about.

Thrasher’s justification, we should understand, is that he is on the side of righteousness. Just look at the handle  he is now going by on Twitter: “Prof. Thrasher is here to protect our students.” There, you can see him proudly endorsing his “comrades” and their vandalism during recent protests at California Polytechnic State University.

And below, according to reporter Andy Ngo, is Thrasher fighting with police at the recent Northwestern demonstration.

It’s beyond belief that a supposedly reputable journalism school could have Thrasher or any proponent of advocacy journalism among its faculty.

UPDATE 4/30/24: In an act of exceptional hypocrisy, Thrasher today signed an open letter to the New York Times complaining of bias and inaccuracy in a Times’ story headlined, “Screams without words: Sexual violence on October 7.” Thrasher apparently doesn’t like that narrative.

Also, Thrasher today changed his Twitter handle to simply “Prof. Thrasher.”

The bald and masked man in this video fighting police at a Gaza encampment at @NorthwesternU is journalism assistant professor Steven Thrasher. Thrasher focuses on brainwashing students about "social justice in reporting." Ever wonder why journalism programs produce such biased… pic.twitter.com/51fQT8bIvq

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 25, 2024

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.