Recently, a former Elon student asserted The Pendulum has become too liberal. Claims such as these, while giving credence to the specious myth of a liberal media, have to be taken seriously. Every journalistic publication needs to do a careful self-assessment about its objectivity, especially in a time of war.

Since January, The Pendulum has only printed one editorial with a liberal slant. But the columns that run in the opinions section do tend to be more liberal-minded. The trouble that newspapers (and broadcasts for that matter) run into is a bias in news text. Journalists are bred to be sightseers, eyes for the world that report the news. Of course, this means reporters should have no point of view or ideological standing. The fact remains, though, that reporters are not robots, programmed to sleepwalk through the world without opinions.

Walter Cronkite is a perfect example. He has no qualms integrating opinion into reporting. He has strongly expressed his dissenting views on a war with Iraq. In the 1960s, he freely revealed his strong opinions of a war in Vietnam. Yet the question remains whether there is a place for opinion in news.

Publications make their own decisions on this matter. Some go so far as to endorse presidential candidates. At The Pendulum, though, we rarely, as a staff, publish articles with any sort of bias. We will continue to report with a fair and accurate eye for the news.