Why did the Society of Professional Journalists remove objectivity from its ethics code in 1996?

By 1996, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) removed objectivity from its ethics code because the principle had become significantly crippled as a guiding standard for the profession.1

This shift occurred as mainstream reporters increasingly doubted the ability of "objective" journalism to convey the truth, particularly after traditional reporting methods struggled to capture the complexities of major historical events such as McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal. These doubts were reinforced by the influence of the New Journalism movement, which challenged the ideology of objectivity by arguing that so-called objective stories could be more misleading than those presented from a clear personal perspective.1

Consequently, the SPJ replaced objectivity in its code with other foundational principles, such as fairness and accuracy, to better reflect the evolving demands of journalistic integrity.1