There's something slippery about the concept of independence, especially in media. It's a term that gets thrown around so often and so loosely that it's come to mean almost nothing at all, other than a vague sense of contrarianism, or the performance of open-mindedness. Independence can serve as a kind of rhetorical get-out-of-jail-free card, invoked to defend everything from sensible moderation to unhinged paranoia - and I say that as someone who owes his career to the perception that I mine is an independent voice.
Independence can serve as a kind of rhetorical get-out-of-jail-free card, invoked to defend everything from sensible moderation to unhinged paranoia - and I say that as someone who owes his career to the perception that I mine is an independent voice. I think we all know what we want independence to mean, something like a willingness to think for oneself, to hold positions that do not align perfectly with any party or tribe, the tendency to defy the opinions of those commonly thought of as our allies.