Straight Reporting

Grist queries some of the leading environmental journalists on the line between advocacy and reporting. The question is:

As you've covered environmental issues over the years, have you found yourself conflicted over your role as objective reporter vs. concerned citizen or activist? Do you believe your role or approach has changed, or should change -- particularly as climate change and other problems intensify?

Respondents include: Felicity Barringer and Andrew Revkin of the New York Times; Ross Gelbspan, formerly of the Boston Globe; The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert; and Michael Grunwald of the Washington Post.

The responses are all nuanced and worth reading, but Grunwald seems to sum up the general attitude when he says: "I believe in facts; it's our only real value-add as journalists. Anyone can provide spin."