So objectivity is not some abstract good to which honorable journalists aspire. Virtue may be its own reward, but journalists are not particularly known for their virtue . Objectivity is important because it's what readers demand. Maybe that sounds old-fashioned and a bit wistful. But I can report that, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, it worked twenty-six years ago and it still seems to be working today.
Advocacy is poison to a free press.
Not because there is any shortage of good causes, or that they don't deserve their advocates. It's just not what newspapers are for. People don't tend to pay good money to be told what to think. People will pay money to obtain the raw material they need to figure out what they think. That sort of figuring is not only vital to a democracy, but also a pleasurable thing to do.