Good journalism doesn’t require the myth of objectivity, says Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Ronan Farrow, it requires a pursuit of the truth that is not socially or politically inflected.

“Reporters are human,” says Ronan, “and so absolutely the stories that I do reflect my worldview in some ways.”

Ronan’s remarks were part of a wide-ranging conversation Tuesday night at Guilford College’s Bryan Series at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.

“That I care about the rule of law, about democracy, that I care about human rights violations... these are all things that filter into my reporting,” says Ronan, an investigative journalist and contributing writer to The New Yorker. 

“I think it’s very possible to have an accurate, not subjectively rendered accounting of the facts. You can have people with a foundation of worldviews and values still say, ‘Okay, we're going to give you every side of this story, and we’re not going to do it in a lazy way.’”

About 1,600 people attended the season finale of the Bryan Series, which was moderated by Ty Buckner, Guilford’s Vice President of Communications & Marketing.

Ronan says the current political and social atmosphere is that every story is assumed to be partisan, a problem heightened by social media and the way we receive our news. 

“People are only receiving news through this kind of algorithmic filter where they're getting the stuff they agree with,” says Ronan.

He says he will regularly report political stories that are prickly for both political parties, but readers are unmoved. “One week I've done a story that happens to be problematic for Democrats. And then I got one set of people mad at me and then I do one that happens to be bad for Republicans. And then I got those people mad at me and each time they're like, ‘you never do the other guys.’ ” 

Ronan says he doesn’t let the criticism get to him. “I think the term objectivity is a little too freighted because it implies something sort of superhuman. You just have to tell important stories and trust the news consumer to take in all of the facts and you tell it like it is. Here are all the perspectives and angles around (the story) but here's what really holds up after you scrutinize it.”

Earlier in the day Guilford students met with Ronan at Founders Hall to discuss his work and the state of journalism in a rapidly changing world of social media and AI. At the Bryan Series later that night, Ronan talked about his meeting with the students when Ty, the moderator, asked him what gives him hope.

“Your students are the ones who give me hope,” Ronan says. “Guilford students believe in justice and seeking the truth and they’re so positive in their thinking.” 

The Guilford College Bryan Series has presented major speakers on the Guilford campus and to large community audiences since 1996. The 2023-24 season that begins in September features 
Sully Sullenberger, the captain of the 2009 flight known as the “Miracle on the Hudson, and distinguished television news anchor Judy Woodruff.

The theme of the upcoming season is Heroes in our Midst. In addition to Sully and Judy, the Series will include award-winning movie maker Walter Parkes, Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Lynsey Addario and Space Shuttle commander and NASA administrator Charles Bolden.

More information is available at the Bryan Series website.