Now I know why reporters editorialize in their news stories. They can’t get the facts right! See here. The job of a reporter is to get things right, not to set them right. It is to make the words match the world, not to make the world match the words. It is to state the facts, not to make value judgments. It is to be impartial, neutral, or disinterested, which is not the same as being objective. It is to describe, not to prescribe. It is to inform, not to direct. It is to promote understanding, not to motivate to change. Opinions belong on the opinion page, not in news stories. If a person has a hard time doing these things, he or she should find another line of work, just as a judge, a referee, or an umpire who finds it hard to be impartial should find another line of work. Nobody expects reporters to be apolitical or amoral. What we expect—and what we have a right to expect—is that, while they are doing their job, they keep their political and moral views to themselves.