I don’t think anyone suggested on the panel that you can’t challenge police forces. I do recall acknowledging there can be practical, as well as ethical, concerns in allowing your biases to migrate into your news coverage. That’s a very different kettle of fish than how it’s being portrayed here.

As for adversarial journalism, at CP we do it every day. We challenge governments and institutions to account for their policies and their decisions every day of the week. But we do it without editorializing, allowing our readers to come up with their own conclusions.

After the discussion, however, I thought of one topic I do wish we’d delved into — unconscious bias. That can have an impact on everything from story selection to the quotes you choose to use from an interview. You may tend to disregard a quote, I suppose, that doesn’t reflect your opinion of a news event or a story, even if you’re not aware you’re doing so. And that’s dangerous, and a tough one to grapple with.